Why does the B. flavidus queen not need to gather pollen for her own subsistence during the active season?

Her foraging is purely for immediate, self-serving energy maintenance (nectar).

The *Bombus flavidus* queen bypasses the entire process of pollen collection because her foraging behavior is exclusively self-serving, focused only on obtaining the immediate, high-energy fuel required for her own flight and survival—which is nectar. Unlike social queens who must balance gathering nectar (energy) with gathering pollen (protein) to provision a large, growing brood, the cuckoo queen delegates all provisioning duties. Since she relies entirely on the host workers to feed her eggs and subsequent parasitic larvae the necessary protein (pollen), the queen herself has no biological need to engage in the heavy, long-haul provisioning flights associated with pollen collection. This energetic difference allows her to focus her time elsewhere, such as surveillance or defense.