B. polaris has a thicker coat of hair than most bees, utilizes thermoregulation, and makes insulated nests.

[2] Bombus polaris has a thicker coat of hair than temperate bees in order to slow heat loss.

[5] The ability of B. polaris to fly in deep cold is due to a process called thermoregulation, which allows it to raise its internal body temperature up to 38 °C.

[6] For this reason B. polaris is likely to outcompete any temperate bumblebee species that might seek to expand to the northern range.

[6] The nests are heavily insulated, an important factor in the bees’ energy conservation in the harsh polar environment.

After all of the sixteen to seventeen larvae of the first brood have developed into workers, the nest temperature is maintained at a steady 35 °C, and the comings and going of the queen and other foragers do not appear to affect it.

[1] The nest of Bombus polaris also appears to have a higher temperature than those of honeybees and bumblebees from temperate climates.

On top of this base, the queen deposits a clump of dust covered in flower nectar, subsequently ringed by a wax roller.

[9] Bombus polaris queens hibernate for about nine months, suspended in an almost lifeless state in a mouse nest or some other burrow and waiting for the ground to warm.

[6] After this, B. polaris fertilized queens emerge from hibernation, visiting flowers and looking for areas to build potential nests.

[1] Arctic bumblebee larvae grow fast, and will experience a near tropical environment due to the heat production of their queen, and later on, of the workers.

[1] Arctic bumblebees have a larger initial brood as an adaptation to speed up the colony cycle in the very short growing season.

[12] Predators of Bombus polaris include the buff-breasted sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis), common eider (Somateria mollissima), and long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis), which will either eat the bees or feed them to their young.

Because of the short Arctic summer, B. polaris normally has time to produce only one brood of workers before the colony has to raise queens.

Due to its cold tolerance the Bombus polaris appears to be one of the earliest pollinators of vegetation in the Arctic each year.

[3] Samuel Robinson has found that, by the time most scientists arrive for the brief warm summers, the "Bumblebees (Bombus spp.)