May 17th, 2007
red-tailed bumblebees
Above and below are my first photos of a Bumblebee for this year. I didn’t mark it down on the calendar, but I may have seen my very first Bumblebee about 2 or 3 weeks ago, but this is the first that I was able to approach close enough to shoot some photos. The first Bumblebees of the season that we see up here in the north are queens, as they are the only bees that overwinter. Later on in the season, we’ll see smaller Bumblebees around and they’re the workers. I don’t know if all of this applies in more southern climes. I guess that’s something I should check into.
As luck would have it, the bee that I photographed on May 15th happened to be one of several species that are referred to as Red-tailed Bees, meaning that the hair on some of their abdominal segments is red rather than the yellow or black that we tend to associate with Bumblebees. I never actually knew that some bees had red segments until I began studying them a lot more closely a few years ago. I also didn’t know that there were so many species of Bumblebees, and that it was possible to identify many of them by determining which abdominal segments were yellow, black or red, and by what kind of markings they had on the head and on the scutum (the top of the thorax behind the head back to between the wings).
As you can see on the bee in these photos, it has a black head and quite a large black marking on the scutum (see below – click on images for larger views). The abdominal sections, beginning just behind the wings are yellow, red, red, yellow and black. That’s all very useful information when you begin trying to identify a Bumblebee. In the past, I used a couple of charts in books, but last year, I found out about the Discover Life Bumblebee Identification Guide and gave it a try. It works quite well. You might want to experiment with it if you are able to observe and record (or photograph) the markings of a bee in your own region. Once you have recorded that information, you just go to the guide and work your way through the key. It’s fairly self-evident how it works – you just click on the appropriate boxes as you work your way down through the key, and then click on “Search”. The guide will attempt to come up with the species that is most likely to be the same as yours. Sometimes, there may be a couple of possible species. In that case, you just click on the links to each of the suggested species and you’ll find a collection of photos that you can compare with your bee. The identification guide suggested that my bee might be either Bombus rufocinctus, or Bombus ternarius. Based on the shape of the scutum markings and a couple of other features, I think that my bee is probably Bombus ternarius.
Anyhow, I hope that some of you will do some Bumblebee-watching and perhaps give the identification guide a whirl as it’s really rather fun.
Note: Here’s a link to a small and very useful little .pdf file that provides definitions for terms relating to bees and their anatomy.
May 17th, 2007 at 9:00 am
We just started seeing bumblebees here, maybe a week ago. I haven’t had an opportunity to photograph one yet, but that will probably change very soon. Now, I’ll start looking for the red-tailed. They are quite a pretty bee. Great links. I’ll bookmark them and join you in some bumblebee watching.
May 17th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
That’s quite a nice bumblebee, with its orange ruff! I haven’t figured who the culprits are, but some of ours get frustrated with larger flowers and drill through the petals instead of getting down into the flower itself.
I had to go search, but I seem to have correctly recalled a conversation last year in June on identifying bumblebees and I successfully (I suppose) used Discover Life to identify one of ours.
I realize Discover Life is a Work in Progress, but have you seen their identification series of questions on Ferns? Two questions, one of which divides Ferns into two groups of 4 and 467 (aquatic or terrestrial). The other question I don’t think I could answer for any fern – conspicuously jointed: two groups, one 456 and the other 11. *Not* very useful.
At the other extreme is Bryophytes, which I was initially excited to see. During the bioblitz I decided to check out our Liverworts. Except that someone seems to have forgotten the public mission, gotten a bit carried away, and planted what looks like a majorly complex series of 30 key questions answerable only by a bryologist armed with a microscope and a heavy duty dictionary!
All that said, I think they’re doing a great job on most stuff, and they have quite a good list of alternative links and links to photos.
May 17th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Prepare for more gushing :0) Even without the Bumblebee – these would be delightful. I think most people have no idea that the humble dandelion is so intricate and beautiful.
I’ll never look at Bumblebees the same again. I’ve got to find a Red-tailed variety. How could I have missed this? I understand these insects are fairly docile and one therefore doesn’t have to worry too much about them becoming aggressive while trying to snap a photo.
May 18th, 2007 at 5:45 am
robin – yes, do join me in some bee-watching! I’d be interested in seeing which species you have out there in the PNW.
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Wayne – I thought we might have discussed bumblebees sometime last summer, but I’ve been too busy to look it up. Ha! I just checked the fern and liverwort idenification keys! You’re right, the fern one doesn’t look too useful, and the liverwort one becomes a little cryptic about a third of the way through. During the bioblitz, I made use of a gorgeous book on lichens from the library, but found that the keys are quite difficult to use. It seems to me that certain organisms — lichens being one of them — require some degree of subjective determination. Each patch of lichen always seems so individual to me, especially as there are often several different lichens growing together. I don’t think I’ll ever move much beyond casual appreciation of lichens! (-:
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Cathy – Thanks again! Oh, you’re so right about the dandelions. When I came in with my spider photos the other day, I was thinking, “Forget the spiders… these dandelions are awesome when you look at them up close!!” (-:
I’m sure you’ll find some red-tailed species around your area. I’d say that roughly a quarter of the bumblebees that I see have red markings. Most bumblebees are quite docile and will pretty much ignore a camera and keep on with their work, but there’s one species that has a reputation for having a prickly personality — Bombus fervidus. I do approach these and have photographed them in the past, but I don’t push my luck with them at all as I’ve found they can become grouchy in very short order. They’re easily recognized as the queens are large (very long-looking abdomen) and are mostly yellow with just a little bit of black.
May 19th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
According to research I did several years ago, only the bumblebee queens overwinter as fertilized queens. Quoting from Donald W. Stokes A GUIDE TO OBSERVING INSECT LIVES: “these [queens]emerge in early spring and start a nest by choosing an existing underground cavity, collecting pollen into clumps, and laying eggs on the pollen. The pollen and eggs are covered with wax and the queen sits on them, keeping them warm while they develop. The eggs hatch in four to five days,”etc. Consult this excellent book, pp. 101-102 for the rest of their lifecycle.
May 20th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Marcia – Thanks for that reference about the overwintering queen bees. I wasn’t sure if that was the case everywhere, or just up here in the north. I should see if our library has a copy of the Stokes’ book as it sounds interesting.