Bombus flavifrons

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Bombus flavifrons
Bombus flavifrons.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Genus: Bombus
Subgenus: Pyrobombus
Species:
B. flavifrons
Binomial name
Bombus flavifrons
Cresson, 1863 [2]
Bombus flavifrons in Washington state Bombus flavifrons 3.jpg
Bombus flavifrons in Washington state

Bombus flavifrons, the yellow-fronted bumble bee or yellowhead bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee. It is native to North America, where it is distributed across much of Canada, Alaska, and the western contiguous United States. [1]

Contents

Description

This is a robust bumblebee; the queen has a body length between 13 and 16 mm (0.51 and 0.63 in) and a wingspan of 27 to 34 mm (1.1 to 1.3 in), the male is 11 to 12 mm (0.43 to 0.47 in) in length with a wingspan of 25 to 26 mm (0.98 to 1.02 in), and the workers are 9 to 12 mm (0.35 to 0.47 in) in length and 19 to 27 mm (0.75 to 1.06 in) in wingspan. [3]

The yellow-fronted bumble bee has a dense, untidy fur. The head is yellow with black hairs intermixed on the posterior part, [3] the thorax has a mixed black and yellow colouration, often (always with the queen) with a black, central field. The first two terga (abdominal segments) are yellow, on the females often with a black, central field on terga 1 to 2. Terga 3 and 4 are red, and the tail black, sometimes with yellow fields. [4]

Subspecies

Subspecies include: [5]

Ecology

The queen emerges from her hibernation at the end of March and often builds a nest in a disused mouse nest. The first workers appear about a month later. The nest declines at the end of August, and all the inhabitants die, except for the new queens, which hibernate in the earth. The bumblebee feeds on several flowering plants, most commonly those in Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Saxifragaceae, and Lamiaceae. [3]

This species is host to the parasitic indiscriminate cuckoo bumblebee ( Bombus insularis ). [1]

This bee occurs at high altitude and latitude, living in habitat such as tundra, taiga, and mountain forests and meadows. [1]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Bombus campestris</i> Species of bee

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<i>Bombus sylvestris</i> Species of bee

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<i>Bombus monticola</i> Species of bee

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<i>Bombus jonellus</i> Species of bee

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<i>Bombus hortorum</i> Species of bee

Bombus hortorum, the garden bumblebee or small garden bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee found in most of Europe north to 70°N, as well as parts of Asia and New Zealand. It is distinguished from most other bumblebees by its long tongue used for feeding on pollen in deep-flowered plants. Accordingly, this bumblebee mainly visits flowers with deep corollae, such as deadnettles, ground ivy, vetches, clovers, comfrey, foxglove, and thistles. They have a good visual memory, which aids them in navigating the territory close to their habitat and seeking out food sources.

<i>Bombus suckleyi</i> Species of bee

Bombus suckleyi is a species of bumblebee known commonly as Suckley's cuckoo bumblebee, named after biologist George Suckley. Suckley's bumble bee is a generalist pollinator and represents a rare group of obligate, parasitic bumble bees. Suckley's bumble bee is a social-parasite because it invades the nests of the host bumble bees, including the western bumble bee, and relies on host species workers to provision its larvae. It is native to northwestern North America, including Alaska and parts of western and central Canada and the western United States.

<i>Bombus pascuorum</i> Species of bee

Bombus pascuorum, the common carder bee, is a species of bumblebee present in most of Europe in a wide variety of habitats such as meadows, pastures, waste ground, ditches and embankments, roads, and field margins, as well as gardens and parks in urban areas and forests and forest edges. It is similar in appearance to Bombus muscorum, and is replacing the species in Northern Britain.

<i>Bombus lucorum</i> Species of bee

Bombus lucorum, the white-tailed bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee, widespread and common throughout Europe. This name has been widely used for a range of nearly identical-looking or cryptic species of bumblebees. In 1983, Scholl and Obrecht even coined the term Bombus lucorum complex to explain the three taxa that cannot be easily differentiated from one another by their appearances. A recent review of all of these species worldwide has helped to clarify its distribution in Europe and northern Asia, almost to the Pacific. B. lucorum reaches the Barents Sea in the North. However, in southern Europe, although found in Greece it is an upland species with its distribution never quite reaching the Mediterranean.

<i>Bombus pensylvanicus</i> Species of bee

Bombus pensylvanicus, the American bumblebee, is a threatened species of bumblebee native to North America. It occurs in eastern Canada, throughout much of the Eastern United States, and much of Mexico.

<i>Bombus nevadensis</i> Species of bee

Bombus nevadensis, the Nevada bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee. It is native to North America, where it occurs from Alaska to California in the west, and east to Wisconsin, and in Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico.

Two-spotted bumble bee Species of bee

The two-spotted bumble bee is a species of social bumble bee found in the eastern half of the United States and the adjacent south-eastern part of Canada. In older literature this bee is often referred to as Bremus bimaculatus, Bremus being a synonym for Bombus. The bee's common name comes from the two yellow spots on its abdomen. Unlike many of the other species of bee in the genus Bombus,B. bimaculatus is not on the decline, but instead is very stable. They are abundant pollinators that forage at a variety of plants.

<i>Bombus fervidus</i> Species of bee

Bombus fervidus, the golden northern bumble bee or yellow bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee native to North America. It has a yellow-colored abdomen and thorax. Its range includes the North American continent, excluding much of the southern United States, Alaska, and the northern parts of Canada. It is common in cities and farmland, with populations concentrated in the Northeastern part of the United States. It is similar in color and range to the American bumblebee. It has complex behavioral traits, which includes a coordinated nest defense to ward off predators. B. fervidus is an important pollinator, so recent population decline is a particular concern.

<i>Bombus ruderarius</i> Species of bee

Bombus ruderarius, commonly known as the red-shanked carder bee or red-shanked bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee found in Eurasia.

<i>Bombus centralis</i> Species of bee

Bombus centralis, the central bumblebee, is a species of bumble bee found in parts of Canada and the western United States. The species was first described by Ezra Townsend Cresson in 1864.

<i>Bombus sitkensis</i> Species of bee

Bombus sitkensis, the Sitka bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee common in western North America from Alaska to California.

<i>Bombus affinis</i> Species of bee

Bombus affinis, commonly known as the rusty patched bumble bee, is a species of bumblebee endemic to North America. Its historical range in North America has been throughout the east and upper Midwest of the United States, north to Ontario, Canada, where it is considered a "species at risk", east to Quebec, south to Georgia, and west to the Dakotas. Its numbers have declined in 87% of its historical habitat range. On January 10, 2017, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service placed B. affinis on the list of endangered species, making the rusty patched bumblebee the first bee to be added to the list in the continental United States.

<i>Bombus vagans</i> Species of bee

The half-black bumblebee is a small bumblebee with a wide distribution in North America, its range extending from Ontario to Nova Scotia and southward to Georgia.

<i>Bombus griseocollis</i> Species of bee

Bombus griseocollis is a species of bumblebee known commonly as the brown-belted bumblebee. It is native to much of the United States except for the Southwest, and to the southernmost regions of several of the provinces of Canada.

<i>Bombus vancouverensis</i> Species of bee

Bombus vancouverensis is a common species of eusocial bumblebee of the subgenus Pyrobombus. B. vancouverensis inhabits mountainous regions of western North America, where it has long been considered as a synonym of Bombus bifarius, and essentially all of the literature on bifarius refers instead to vancouverensis. B. vancouverensis has been identified as one of the two species of bumblebee observed to use pheromones in kin recognition. The other is the frigid bumblebee, Bombus frigidus.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hatfield, R., et al. (2015). "Bombus flavifrons". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  2. "Bombus flavifrons Cresson, 1863". American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2010-04-03.
  3. 1 2 3 Van Haga, A. (2007). "Species Details Bombus flavifrons". University of Alberta Museums. E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Jonathan Koch, James Strange & Paul Williams (2012). "Bumble Bees of the Western United States" (PDF, 7.56 MB). The Xerces Society. pp. 42–45. Retrieved 30 January 2013.[ permanent dead link ]
  5. Bumblebee.org . accessed 3.30.2013