Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar
Upcoming Events

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2018 gathering in Virginia, July 27-29


Previous events


TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Species Bombus affinis - Rusty-patched Bumble Bee

Bombus affinis Bumblebee - Bombus affinis Bombus affinis - female Large Bumble Bee - Bombus affinis - female Large Bumble Bee - Bombus affinis - female Bombus on aster - Bombus affinis - female Rusty-patched Bumble Bee - Bombus affinis Bombus affinis queen? - Bombus affinis - female
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 Bombus )
Species affinis (Rusty-patched Bumble Bee)
Explanation of Names
Bombus affinis Cresson, 1863
common name refers to the rust-colored patch on the abdomen.
Size
queen: body length 21-22 mm
male: 13-17.5 mm
worker: 11-16 mm
Identification
Queens have a similar color pattern to B. vagans, with a yellow thorax and yellow T1 and T2 but in affinis the face and malar is much shorter, the hairs of the face are all black, and the coat is shorter and more uniform in length. Workers and males are distinctive in having a well-defined black interalar band (as opposed to a black medial spot) and in having an rusty-orange patch across the base of T2.
see detailed descriptions at discoverlife.org
Range
MN to IN, plus a few remaining sites on east coast, see map per Xerces Society. Formerly Upper Midwest and Eastern North America: Ontario to New Brunswick, south to North Carolina. Historically known from more than 25 states.
Season
Jul-Oct (BG data)
Food
The Hosts section of its Discover Life species page lists known associations based on specimen records and images.
Remarks
Declines of this species were first noted by John S. Ascher at Ithaca, New York, ca. 2001 when populations that were conspicuous in the late 1990s could not be located. At this and many other localities across its historic range affinis is no longer detected, but it has been shown to persist locally in the midwest and in New England.
Abrupt and severe declines of this and other bumble bee species in this subgenus were widely reported soon after development of the commercial bumble bee industry and detection of high rates of parasitism in managed colonies.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced on 21 Sep 2016 a proposal to list the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ruling was finalized on 11 Jan 2017 when the USFWS gave the species endangered status under the ESA. - source

**Listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species**
Internet References
Wikipedia (extensive amount of info)
33 pinned adult images plus detailed descriptions of queen, worker, male, distribution, seasonality, flower records (discoverlife.org)
Bombus - Natural History Museum, UK
common name reference; PDF doc (Committee on Common Names of Insects, Entomological Society of America)