psithyrus has definitions from the fields of biology,zoology
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[ noun ] (biology,zoology) a large bee that resembles the bumblebee but lacks pollen-collecting apparatus and a worker caste

Synonyms

genus_Psithyrus

Used in print

(B. J. D. Meeuse, The Story of Pollination....)

Female individuals of Psithyrus look deceptively like the workers and queens of the bumblebees they victimize .

The one sure way to tell victim and villain apart is to examine the hind_legs which in the case of the idler , Psithyrus , lack the pollen baskets - naturally !

Later_on , they and the mother Psithyrus are fed by the Bombus workers .

Worse still , in a number of cases it has been claimed that the Psithyrus female kills_off the Bombus queen .

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