Bumblebees still come out to forage on the milder autumn days. Honeybees can't function if temperatures are much below 10℃ but bumblebees are furry. It is thought that bumblebees may have originated in the Himalayas and Hegduan Mountains about 35 million years ago.

 Recently I watched some truly remarkable footage from the BBC series Frozen Planet showing Lapland bumblebees emerging after nine months of hibernation. They can survive temperatures as low as -20℃ and feed on the wildflowers of the tundra in the short period when the landscape thaws.