Updated 20-Feb-2014
- News on Bumblebees infected with Honeybee diseases.
- Additional photos added.
Proverbs, anecdotes, poems and quotations influence all of us, to some extent, when we were growing up, whether we knew it or not and whether now in later life, we care to admit it or not. Some of them would have shaped our outlook, attitude and even our personality, hopefully for the better.
One such anecdote that greatly influenced me tells of a French entomologist August Magnan and his engineer friend discussing a bumblebee one evening in the 1930’s.
… because the bumblebee doesn’t know that it is not supposed to fly, it can and does fly …
The engineer apparently did a back-of-napkin calculation and “proved” that aerodynamically, it was not possible for the bumblebee to fly. But we all know and can see with our own eyes that a bumblebee can indeed fly. That day in my youth, when I first heard of this anecdote, it was not the science (that actually showed a bumblee can fly) that concerned me. The profound idea that struck me and stuck with me to this day was the lesson it conveyed; that just because the bumblebee doesn’t know that it is not supposed to fly, it can and does fly along happily, and it flies very well too, I might add.
And that’s the way my attitude is shaped; that one should not be seeking too much advice from others as to whether something can be done, if indeed that something is what you have a strong desire to achieve. Believe in yourself and just go ahead and do it. If the results are not forthcoming, your vision is not worth anything; dreams have no value until the results are achieved. And to get there, be a bumblebee.
Now it’s your turn. Which proverb, anecdote, poem or quotation provided a life’s lesson for you?
Footnote:
When was the last time you actually saw a real live bumblebee? For me, it must have been years since I last saw one. So what are the odds of a bumblebee appearing and hovering around me just after I wrote about it? And what are the odds that I’ll have a camera (my iPhone) with a newly installed app “Burst Mode” to snap 100 shots with one click? I wrote the first draft yesterday and this morning a bumblebee paid me a visit. And I shot a few sequences of it darting among my flowers with my iPhone in Burst Mode. Not exactly tack-sharp pictures (I was quivering with excitement), but what a photo-moment it was. Click on the thumbnails below to see the flight sequences.
Learn more about the Bumblebee at Bumblebee.org
According to Bumblebee.org, “Bumblebees are large, hairy social insects with a lazy buzz and clumsy, bumbling flight. ”
Most people like the bumblebee as it very rarely stings anyone. When I was a kid, I thought the large, round, black blobs flying around our garden was a bumblebee. And even up to when I was writing this article and sharing the photos above of the unexpected “bumblebee” that visited me, I didn’t think I was wrong.
www.bumblebee.org
www.bumblebee.org
However, I learnt at Bumblebee.org that are six species of bumblebees and the black one is not one of them. See the photo of a “Bombus Pratorum” queen shown here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it here in our country.
Another view of a “Bombus Pratorum” bumblebee.
www.bumblebee.org
The black one looks like a Bumblebee but is actually a Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea).
However, for me the black round blob that flies “when it shouldn’t be able to fly”, will always be the “bumblebee” to me. It epitomises the lesson adequately.
19-Feb-2014
BBC News (Science and Environment)
Bumblebees infected with honeybee diseases
Researchers have found that two diseases harboured by honeybees are spilling over into wild bumblebees.
Insects infected with deformed wing virus and a fungal parasite called Nosema ceranae….
20-Feb-2014
The Bumblebee came visiting again in my garden.
