bombus / bumble Bee
Brown-belted bumble bee worker (Bombus griseocollis). © Rollin Coville
Male Bombus vosnesenskii Radoszowski. © Rollin Coville
Bombus vosnesenskii Radoszkowski worker. © Rollin Coville
Brown-belted bumble bee worker (Bombus griseocollis). © Rollin Coville
Family: Apidae
Genus: Bombus
Common Name: Bumble Bee
APPEARANCE
Physical Appearance
Typically black, very fuzzy bees, with varying numbers and sometimes combinations of yellow, red, orange, brown or white colored bands on the thorax and abdomen. In some species, the male has lighter coloring than the female.
The female carries pollen, moistened with nectar, in a fringe of stiff, inward curved hairs on her hind legs, called a pollen basket.
Size: Medium to large, robust bees, 1/2 to 1 inch in length. Queens are much larger than either female workers or males.
Characteristics
Bumble bees form annual colonies. Within these colonies, mated queens overwinter by burrowing a few inches underground or beneath a pile of leaf litter and then emerge to found new nests in the spring.
Bumble bee colonies consist of the queen and anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred female workers. Annual colonies typically persist from spring through summer, with male bumble bees and new queens being produced towards the end of the season. The males mate with new queens, which will overwinter to begin a new cycle.
Female bumble bees are able to “buzz-pollinate” the flowers of certain plants. By grasping the flower and rapidly vibrating her wing muscles, a female bumble bee is able to release a burst of pollen from deep pores in the flower’s anthers.
Partly due to their ability to buzz-pollinate, bumble bees are excellent crop pollinators. They are more effective than honey bees at pollinating crops such as tomatoes, cranberries and blueberries.
VIDEO: A female bee approaches the flower, buzz-pollinates, then departs the flower.
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HABITS
Distribution
This is a widespread genus, with most of the roughly 260 species distributed throughout the Americas and Eurasia. North American Bombus species are found in almost every region across the continent, the range of some species extending well into northern Canada.
Number of species in North America
Forty-nine
Emergence Time
Queens in early spring, followed by several generations of female workers starting in late spring, and finally males and new queens, in mid to late summer.
Nesting Habit
Cavity nesting, using abandoned rodent nests or other pre-formed cavities, typically in the ground, or under grass tussocks.
Pollinated Garden Crops Include
Tomato
Apple
Peppers
Blueberry
Almond
Sunflower
Watermelon
Additional Flowers Visited in Natural Areas
Baptisia (wild indigo)
Rubus (blackberry)
Spiraea (steeplebush, meadowsweet)
