Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Subgenus Thoracobombus

bee on Verbena - Bombus pensylvanicus Bombus sp? - Bombus pensylvanicus American bumble bee - Bombus pensylvanicus Bombus borealis? - Bombus pensylvanicus American Bumble Bee  - Bombus pensylvanicus Yellow Bee  - Bombus fervidus - female caliginosus or vosnesenskii vs. californicus? - Bombus californicus Bumble Bee on Tall Thistle, Scraggly Yellow Hairs - Bombus pensylvanicus
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
No Taxon (Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees)
Family Apidae (Cuckoo, Carpenter, Digger, Bumble, and Honey Bees)
Subfamily Apinae (Honey, Bumble, Longhorn, Orchid, and Digger Bees)
Tribe Bombini (Bumble Bees)
Genus Bombus (Bumble Bees)
No Taxon Subgenus Thoracobombus
Explanation of Names
Thoracobombus Dalla Torre 1880
Numbers
4 spp. in our area, 52 total(1)
Identification
Head and malar space long. Midleg with sharp angle. Ocelli of female at (not below) level of upper eye margin.
Range
holarctic & neotropical, most spp. in Eurasia, 10 in S.America; in our area, B. fervidus is transcontinental in Canada & n. US (south to AZ-CA in the west), B. pensylvanicus is widespread throughout the US & Canada, B. californicus throughout the w. half of NA, and B. sonorus in sw. US(1)
Habitat
Open grassland, mountain meadow, semi-desert, and tropical montane and lowland forest, less often in temperate forests.(2)
Life Cycle
Nests on the surface, sometimes underground(2)