Images

What a lovely face. This bumblebee species has almost entirely disappeared from its West Coast range due to a recent epidemic sweeping through some bumblebee populations.

This bumblebee species has almost entirely disappeared from its West Coast range due to a recent epidemic sweeping through some bumblebee populations. However, the Rocky Mountain populations still persist and there is hope that the West Coast population will also recover and resume its place as one of the most common bumblebee species in the West.

Ah, the lovely yellow of Bombus perplexus. For some reason this species' coloration tends towards bright yellow while other eastern bumbles are more subdued in their yellowness. It varies with their age (the sun fade bumbles plumage) but a nice lemon yellow usually means this species.

More Bombus perplexus shots, in this case...males. You can tell they are males because they have 13 rather than 12 antennal segments and the hind legs lack the pollen carrying corbicula (bare area) on the tibia. Lemon yellow though! Specimens from Central Pennyslvania from Laura Russo's study there. Photographs by Kelly Graninger.

Another bumble bee! How many can there be? Answer: About 50 north of Mexico. Here is a widespread northern one. Bombus rufocinctus. Collected in Yellowstone National Park. Photograph by Colby Francouer.

Three more bumblebees today from Yellowstone National Park, or should I say three more pictures of one bumblebee. These are shots of Bombus rufocinctus. This species is notoriously variable in its hair coloration. In this particular shot there is a great deal of reddish orange in the abdomen.

A quick back shot of Bombus ternarius. In the east, it is the only bee with bright orange markings on its abdomen, the other bees may have some yellow or dark reddish but nothing so spectacular. A northern bee, something that occurs from Pennsylvania North but is yet to be recorded in West Virginia or Maryland. Photograph by Amber Reese, specimen from Michigan.

Some yellow and orange tushiness from a Bombus ternarius taken during the Adirondack Bioblitz. In most of New England the only Bumble Bee with significant orange and yellow on its abdomen. Photoshoping by Thistle Droege photograph by Dejen Mengis.

Bombus terrestris - A domesticated bee. Widely used in agriculture in green house pollination as well as in the field. Also one that has been introduced into several parts of the world... Causing major problems in South America where some combination of competition and disease harms the native bumble bees.

Bombus vagans, a male from the Adirondacks of New York. How lovely to look at this northernish Bumblebee species. Check out the mustache...characteristic of the males, females have no mustache, just clear integument. I just like looking at this particular specimen.

There are about 50 species of bumble bees north of Mexico. Here is a common northern species that creeps down the mountains to the Appalachians. It also appears to be retracting its southern range edge...perhaps due to global warming or who knows? Still common in the north, but something to keep track of.

Bombus fraternus. The Southern Plains Bumble Bee. This crisp, handsome and short-faced bee suffers from lack of an adequate publicist. Thought, several other Bumble Bees in its clan, to be in decline from introduced pathogens. It gets little mention in the bee press.

Check the eyes out on this male Bumble Bee. We already put up a spread of female B. fraternus, but the male has some pretty unique features for bumble bees. For one, the eyes are HUGE, they nearly meet at the top of the head. Only a few other bumbles do that...and the face is extremely short, with the mandibles almost joined to the bottom of the eyes.

This is one of the species that seems to be holding its own in terms of numbers. This worker has a corbicula on its tibia full of a mix of pollen and nectar, it is laying on a piece of black felt. I like the the contrast in textures

Philadelphia Bee Survey, 2012, Pennsylvania, Stephanie Wilson Collector, Morris Arboretum

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota, note the ragged edges to the wing....this is an old worker who has been collecting nectar for a while, eventually it will no longer be able to fly or will have been eaten

From Yellowstone National Park comes the powerful Bombus insularis, and this parasite of other bumblebees is one bad ass bee. collected as part of a high elevation study of the Alpine areas throughout the United States, with the idea that climate change first reaches the tops of things and the bottom of things (oceans that is).

Another male Yosemite Bumble Bee. B. melanopygus is similar to B. bifarius illustrated in the last set of picture, but a bit more higher elevation and bit more arctic in its distributions. There is a softness to the face here that I find most appealing. Collected by Claire Kremen's group in the National Park. Photo by Anders Croft.

Tightly wrapped in fur-like orange hair, this lovely western bumblebee was captured at the far edge of its range in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Near the Black Hills, an island of Rocky Mountain type habitat in a sea of prairie, the Badlands are receivers perhaps of bees that otherwise would not inhabit prairie habitats. Photo by Brooke Alexander.

A series of pictures of a queen and a male of the northernish bumble bee Bombus vagans. Still a reasonable common component of northern Appalachian systems, its been retreating from its lower elevation and southern edges over the last century.