# 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.

- **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.

## About

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...

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/1db905bb-3ba6-431f-8ddb-e4a7c4c3734d
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/121517
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombus terricola
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/51554787/medium.jpg (Bill Keim, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.