This study compared the food plants, life cycle, colony development, and mating behaviour of the two Asian bumblebee species Bombus friseanus and B. breviceps, which are very important pollinators for many wild flowers and crops in local ecosystems. Both species were shown to be highly polylectic. Differences were observed in their life cycles and colony development patterns. The colony foundation rate of the field-collected queens was high in both species, 95.5% in B. friseanus and 86.5% in B. breviceps. The intervals from colony initiation to colony sizes of 30, 60, and 80 workers and to the first male and gyne emergence were significantly shorter in B. friseanus than in B. breviceps (p < 0.01). The development period of the first batch of workers showed no significant difference between the two species (p > 0.05). Compared with B. friseanus, B. breviceps produced remarkably higher numbers of workers (135 ± 30 workers/colony in B. friseanus and 318 ± 123 workers/colony in B. breviceps) and males (199 ± 46 males/colony in B. friseanus and 355 ± 166 males/colony in B. breviceps) (p < 0.01), with notable variation was found among the colonies in both species. With no significant difference in the mating rate between these two species, the copulation duration of B. breviceps (1.54 ± 0.63 min) was strikingly shorter than that of B. friseanus (27.44 ± 11.16 min) (p < 0.001). This study highlights the characteristics of the two Asian bumblebee species and will aid further studies on their conservation and agricultural pollination use.

中文翻译：

---

两种亚洲大黄蜂种类的特征：熊蜂friseanus和熊蜂breviceps（膜翅目：Apidae）

这项研究比较了两种亚洲大黄蜂物种Bombus friseanus和B. breviceps的食用植物，生命周期，菌落发育和交配行为，它们是当地生态系统中许多野花和农作物的重要授粉媒介。两种都显示出高度多电性。在生命周期和菌落发育模式上观察到差异。场收集王后的菌落基础速率在这两个物种是高的，在95.5％B. friseanus和86.5％在B.短头蛙属。从弗里森氏杆菌中菌落开始到菌落大小分别为30、60和80个工人的菌落间隔以及首次出现雄性和雌性的时间间隔要比B. breviceps短。（p <0.01）。首批工人的发育期在两个物种之间没有显着差异（p > 0.05）。相比B. friseanus，B.短头蛙属产生的工人（135名±30工人/菌落中的显着更高的数字B. friseanus和318名±123工人/菌落中B.短头蛙属）和雄性（199名±46男性/菌落中B.弗氏布鲁氏菌和B. breviceps的355±166雄性/集落（p <0.01），在两个物种的菌落之间均发现显着差异。这两个物种之间的交配率没有显着差异，但B. breviceps的交配持续时间（1.54±0.63分钟）明显短于弗氏布鲁斯杆菌（27.44±11.16分钟）（p <0.001）。这项研究突出了这两种亚洲大黄蜂的特征，并将有助于对其保护和农业授粉用途的进一步研究。