very beautiful insect indeed. still around my house in Temuco.

The first introduced bombus to Chile was before mid 1990's.The 1990's
introduction was for greenhouse tomato pollination. Then well spread for
fruits and seeds pollination. This latter one is Bombus terrestris. No one
evaluated other maladies, like viruses, that could have been introduced to
Chile with the B.terrestris queens that are imported each year by the 100
thoushands from Belgium. Israel and I understand Holland.

The first introduction was in 1983

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0005772X.1986.11098855
The Introduction of *Bombus Ruderatus* to Chile for Red Clover Pollination

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html