Yellow-banded Bumble Bee
Bombus terricola
Workers often chew holes directly through the base of long, tubular flowers to extract nectar without contacting the reproductive organs of the plant.
- Scientific name
- Bombus terricola
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Arthropoda › Insecta › Hymenoptera › Apidae › Bombus
- IUCN Red List status
- Vulnerable
- Population trend
- decreasing
- Biome
- forest
- Habitat
- Boreal forests, mixed woodland edges, bogs, and adjacent meadows
- Diet
- Nectar and pollen gathered from diverse flowering plants, including willows, blueberries, and goldenrods
- Range
- Canada, United States
- Size
- Workers 9–14 mm long; queens 17–20 mm long
- Lifespan
- Up to 1 yr
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Pathogen spillover from commercially reared bees, pesticide exposure, habitat fragmentation, and climate warming
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless to humans when foraging on flowers, but defensive if their underground nest is disturbed. Females possess smooth stingers capable of stinging repeatedly. Maintain a distance of several meters from active colonies. If stung, wash the area with soap and water, apply cold compress, and seek immediate medical attention if signs of a systemic allergic reaction occur.
Bombus terricola , the yellow-banded bumblebee , is a species of bee in the genus Bombus . It is native to southern Canada and the east and midwest of the United States. It possesses complex behavioral traits, such as the ability to adapt to a queenless nest, choose which flower to visit, and regulate its temperature to fly during cold weather. It was at one time a common species, but has declined in numbers since the late 1990s, likely...
Photo: Bill Keim, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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