• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 1999

Queens of Korean native bumblebee species, Bombus ignitus were collected from the field in the spring of 1998 to investigate their ecological characteristics and reared under the laboratory conditions; 3 0 f 1$^{\circ}$C, 55 25% of relative humidity and darkness. As a result, 94.4% of the queens laid eggs in 6.00f 2.41 days after the field collection. The first worker and the first drone from the egg cell of the collected queens appeared in 18.90 f 1.16 and 68.96 f 3.94 days, respectively. In the colony foundation, 86.1% of the collected queens founded their colony, and 96.8% of them produced new queens in 71.14f 6.88 days. The life span of the colony-founded queen covered for 86.90f24.35 days, whereas that of non-colonized queen for 15.67 f 7.37 days. One colony sized as big as 987.82f 145.84 in number, composing of workers (188.79f 18.23), drones (691.10f 159.24) and queens (107.93 f47.48). Copulation lasting time of queen and drone took 23.00f 7.33 minutes in average. In a new queen emergence, there were two patterns; single peak type of new queen emergence in 12.31 k6.95 days and two peaks type of it in 74.00f 17.61 days. The number of eggs per egg cell of new queen averaged as 8.86f 4.00 grains and an egg period covered 3 days after oviposition. An egg cell sized as 7.15 f0.88 mm in a width, 7.79 f 1 .l 1 mm in a length and 3.33 f 0.23 mm in a height. An egg shaped as banana and sized as 1.22 f 0.09 mm in a width and as 3.5 1 f 0.21 mm in a length, weighing as 2.70 + 0.30 mg.