Distinct Bumble Bee Features

    • Bumble bees have many species that mimick their appearance, however, they typically do not share the characteristics of a true bumble bee

    • Bumble bees have hair all over their body and long antennas 

    • Queen Bumble bees are very large and many people mistake them for Giant Hornets out of fear

    • They are round and robust 

    (Xerces Society, 2020)

  • To identify the sex, look at the antennae, hind leg, and the abdomen

    • The workers and the queens

    • They groom themselves a lot due to the excess pollen on their bodies

    • 6 segments on their abdomen

    • They have wider legs for carrying pollen

    • Antennae length: 12 segments

    • They have a hairless area where the pollen basket is

    (Xerces Society, 2020)

    • Males are harder to identify

    • Shaggy-looking due to not needing to groom themselves as much

    • 7 segments on their abdomen

    • Hairless area in the middle of the back leg (where the females have their pollen baskets)

      Imposter (fake) bees have full hairy legs

    • They have skinny legs

    • Antennae length: 13 segments

    (Xerces Society, 2020)

Feeding Habits

Bumblebees are foragers which means they extract pollen and nectar from a range of flowering plants. While accumulating resources for their nests, bumblebees naturally aid in pollination by transferring pollen between plants, especially plants within the nightshade family. Bumble bee colonies can range anywhere from 1000 bees to 50, depending on the diversity of resources nearby and the number of other bumblebee species, influencing the space available to build a colony (Koch, J. et al, 2011).  

Worker bees are easy to spot as they typically have large orange or yellow pollen baskets. Many bumble bees of different kinds enjoy the same flowering plants, leading to encounters with many different bumble bees all at once. To identify different bombus types, it is important to observe the colors of their coat and the patterns on the thorax and abdomen.

While observing Bombus vosnesenskii, I noticed a clear preference for lupin and other purple flowers. Without prior knowledge of bumble bees' relationships with color, I began to wonder if there is something specific about the color purple that attracts them, or if these bees have learned that purple flowers generally meet their pollination and nectar needs.

Potential Research Questions:

  1. How does the color impact bombus foraging habits, efficiency, and pollination success in various flowering plants?

  2. What is the role of bombus vosnesenskii in pollinating native versus non-native plant species, and how does this interaction impact local ecosystems?

  • Bombus vosnesenskii | NatureServe Explorer. (2024). https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.819691/Bombus_vosnesenskii 

    Cameron, S. A., Hines, H. M., & Williams, P. H. (2007). A comprehensive phylogeny of the bumble bees (Bombus). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society/Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 91(1), 161–188. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2007.00784.x 

    Cameron, S. A., Lozier, J. D., Strange, J. P., Koch, J. B., Cordes, N., Solter, L. F., & Griswold, T. (2011). Patterns of widespread decline in North American bumble bees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(2), 662–667. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1014743108 

    Harmon‐Threatt, A. N., & Kremen, C. (2015). Bumble bees selectively use native and exotic species to maintain nutritional intake across highly variable and invaded local floral resource pools. Ecological Entomology, 40(4), 471–478. https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12211 

    Koch, J., Strange, J., & Williams, P. (2011). Bumble Bees of the Western United States. Pollinator Partnership. https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator.org/assets/generalFiles/BumbleBee.GuideWestern.FINAL.pdf 

    Strange, J. P. (2015). Bombus huntii, Bombus impatiens, and Bombus vosnesenskii (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Pollinate Greenhouse-Grown Tomatoes in Western North America. Journal of Economic Entomology, 108(3), 873–879. https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/tov078 

    Xerces Society. (2020, May 21). Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas Training: Module 4 -- Identifying bumble bees in the Pacific NW [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddZXH8rhkQQ 

    Yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii)  - Bumble Bee Watch. (n.d.). https://www.bumblebeewatch.org/field-guide/41/ 

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