Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
includes Psithyrus as a subgenus
Numbers
47 spp. in 8 subgenera in our area
(1), ~300 spp. in 16 subgenera total
(2)Identification
B. kirbiellus - Golden-belted Bumble Bee

♀
B. natvigi - High Nearctic Bumble Bee

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B. polaris - Polar Bumble Bee

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B. auricomus - Black and Gold Bumble Bee

♀

♂
B. nevadensis - Bombus nevadensis

♀

♂
B. affinis - Rusty Patched Bumble Bee

♀

♂
B. cryptarum - Cryptic Bumble Bee

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B. occidentalis - Western Yellow-banded Bumble Bee

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B. terricola - Yellowbanded Bumble Bee

♀

♂

♂
B. fraternus - Southern Plains Bumble Bee

♀

♂
B. griseocollis - Brownbelted Bumble Bee

♀

♂

♂
B. rufocinctus - Redbelted Bumble Bee

♀

♂
B. citrinus - Lemon Cuckoo Bumble Bee

♀

♂
B. fernaldae - Fernald Cuckoo Bumble Bee


♂
B. insularis - Indiscriminate Cuckoo Bumble Bee

♀

♂
B. suckleyi - Suckleyi Bumblebee

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B. variabilis - Variable Cuckoo Bumblebee

♀

♀

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B. bimaculatus - Twospotted Bumble Bee

♀

♂
B. caliginosus - Fog-belt Bumble Bee

♀

♂

♀

♂
B. frigidus - Frigid Bumble Bee

♂

♀

♂
B. impatiens - Common Eastern Bumble Bee

♀

♂

♀

♀

♀

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B. perplexus - Confusing Bumble Bee

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♂

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B. ternarius - Tricolored Bumble Bee

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♂
B. vagans - Half-black Bumble Bee

♀

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B. vancouverensis - Vancouver Bumble Bee

♀

♂
B. vosnesenskii - Yellow-faced Bumble Bee

♀

♂


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B. borealis - Boreal Bumble Bee

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♂

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B. fervidus - Golden Northern Bumble Bee

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♂
B. pensylvanicus - American Bumble Bee

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♂
B. sonorus - Sonoran Bumble Bee

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Pictorial guides to North American spp.
(3) • IL spp.
(4) • CA spp.
(5)Range
most of the world (incl. high Arctic), but scarcer in the tropics
(2); in NA, 43 spp. in the west (
list), 24 in the east (
list), and 18 in the south (
list)
(6)
Habitat
Generally distributed but most abundant and diverse at humid, cool sites rich in flowers, such as mountain meadows.
Season
Mated, overwintered Queens emerge from their hibernacula in very early-late spring, depending on the species. Workers emerge in late spring-early summer after which they build in numbers, and persist until late summer-late fall depending on the species. Virgin queens and males appear in summer-fall, depending on the species, and visit flowers at that time along with foraging workers. At the end of the season workers and males die and mated queens enter their hibernacula where they remain dormant until spring. In warm areas such as southern California and south Florida bumble bees can be found flying even in mid-winter.
Remarks
populations of
B. occidentalis, B. pensylvanicus, B. affinis, and
B. terricola have declined dramatically over the last decades
(8)
IUCN Red List lists 15 spp. in our area as near threatened to critically endangered
See Also
bee-mimicking robber flies
Laphria and
MallophoraPrint References
Milliron H.E. (1971) A monograph of Western Hemisphere bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Bombinae) I. The genera Bombus and Megabombus subgenus Bombias. Mem. Ent. Soc. Canada 82: 1‒80.
Milliron H.E. (1973a) A monograph of Western Hemisphere bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Bombinae) II. The genus Megabombus subgenus Megabombus. Mem. Ent. Soc. Canada 89: 81‒237.
Milliron H.E. (1973b) A monograph of Western Hemisphere bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Bombinae) III. The genus Pyrobombus subgenus Cullumanobombus. Mem. Ent. Soc. Canada 91: 239‒333.
Stephen W.P. (1957) Bumble bees of western America. Oregon State College: Agric. Exp. Sta., Tech. Bull. 40. 163 pp.
Warriner M.D. (2011) Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) of remnant grasslands in Arkansas. J. Kans. Ent. Soc. 84: 43‒50.
Williams P.H. (1998) An annotated checklist of bumble bees with an analysis of patterns of description (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Bombini). Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. (Entomol.) 67: 79‒152.
Williams P.H., Cameron S.A., Hines H.M., Cederberg B., Rasmont P. (2008) A simplified subgeneric classification of the bumblebees (genus Bombus). Apidologie 39: 46‒74.