Your Bumble Bee Identification Guide

Bumble Bee Anatomy

Courtesy of Xerces Society

Bombus Vosnesenskii have a bright yellow face, a partly yellow thorax, and a mostly black body with a yellow stripe on their lower abdomen. Males may have a bit more yellow on their bodies. They're covered in short, even hair and have medium-length tongues (Bee & Bloom, n.d.). 

  

Queens are 18 to 21 millimeters long, worker bees can be from 8 to 17 millimeters long, and drones, or males, are 10 to 15 millimeters long. Female bees carry pollen on their back legs using special hairs (Bee & Bloom, n.d.). 

Range

Yellow-faced bumble bees are found along the west coast of the U.S., most commonly found in the northwest most region of the U.S. and the southwest most region of Canada (NatureServe Explorer, 2024). 

Courtesy of Bumble Bee Watch

Habitat

Bumble bees (Bombus Latreille) occupy a wide diversity of habitats, from alpine meadows to lowland tropical forest, yet they appear to be similar in morphology throughout their range, suggesting that behavioral adaptations play a more important role in colonizing diverse habitats (Cameron et al, 2007).

Reproduction, Life Cycle, and Life Expectancy 

Bees are very reliant on their queen for survival and reproduction. A queen bee often lives for about a year. During this time, worker bees are assisting the queen in reproduction, specifically producing an offspring of male bees, later to be followed by the production of some queens. Once the bees are born, they leave the nest and find mates. After mating, the male dies and the queen forages, then becomes dormant for the winter. Come spring, colonies are founded by a queen and the cycle starts all over again (Koch, J. et al, 2011).

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Bombus Observations