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Characteristics

Length: Queen 0.67–0.82 in (17–21 mm); worker and male 0.39–0.67 in (10–17 mm).

Flight season: April–November.

Nectar sources: Very varied.

Habitat: Forest, farmland, parks, gardens.

This is one of North America’s most important pollinators. Abundant in the east, it is now used for greenhouse pollination in California and Mexico, far outside its natural range. It is a social insect. Workers fly from flower to flower to collect pollen; goldenrods are particularly popular nectar sources, along with thistles, apples, clovers, vetches, burdocks, rhododendrons, and tomatoes. Some pollen becomes attached to the bees’ hairy bodies and some is collected in “pollen baskets” on the legs. The workers take it back to the underground nest, which typically houses 300–500 bees.

Eastern bumblebees are mostly covered in black hairs, with a band of yellow on the thorax and another on the first segment of the abdomen. Queens emerge from hibernation in March or April and fly in search of sites for new colonies, which are typically established in May. Each queen lays around 2,000 eggs in a season, about half of them surviving to adulthood. Female workers emerge in June, then the males and new queens appear in August and September. In late fall, the old queen and the workers die, as do the males, although not before mating with the next generation of queens.