Florida Bumblebees
In Florida we have five species of bumblebees.
We did have six, but unfortunately the yellow-banded bumblebee hasn’t been seen in Florida since 1962.
This IFAS article shows the range map for each species in Florida if you’re interested. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN207
Over 250 species of bumblebees occur throughout the world, 47 occur in the United States, but only five occur in Florida:
Description
Bumblebees are large bees with black and yellow body colorations.
They range in size from about ½ and inch to almost 1 inch in length.
They are often seen in gardens and wildflower patches moving from flower to flower to collect nectar and pollen. They love blue and purple flowers but will visit any flower that provides nectar. They like to visit flowers in the mornings when the nectar and pollen are freshest. They also prefer mornings or overcast days because they are black and retain a lot of heat so prefer cooler times for foraging.
Common Name, Family, and Latin Name
Bumblebee has the accepted spelling of one word, two words, or a hyphenated word. So you may see it spelled in various ways by different authors. I prefer using bumblebee, but it is actually a personal preference and neither is incorrect.
Bumblebees are found in the Apidae family along with other bees like the cuckoo bee, carpenter bee, and the two-spotted long-horned bee.
The Latin genus name for bumblebees is Bombus.
Just an FYI – the full name of a species is given as two words: its genus (always capitalized) followed by the specific epithet (never capitalized). Sometimes it is referred to as the scientific name, but it is always in Latin so I prefer to use that terminology.
In Florida we have five Bombus species which include:
- Bombus bimaculatus (two-spotted bumblebee)
- Bombus fraternus (southern plains bumblebee
- Bombus griseocollis (brown-belted bumblebee)
- Bombus impatiens (common eastern bumblebee)
- Bombus pensylvanicus (American bumblebee)
Behavior
Bumblebees are the most reliable pollinator in my green space. They like to visit early in the morning when the nectar and pollen is fresh on the flowers. They have relatively long tongues and usually visit flowers that are just the right depth for them to reach the flower nectar. They like wildflowers such as ironweed, lyre-leaf sage, thistles, Spanish needles, and spotted bee balm. However, some flowers may be too long for them to reach their prize so they will cut a hole near the base of the flower to access the nectar.
Female bumblebees, along with honeybees, have pollen baskets (corbicula) on their back legs and when they groom themselves they put the pollen in those baskets to keep it safe for transporting back to their colony. Sometimes bumblebees will make loud buzzing sounds to shake or vibrate the pollen off the flower’s stamens (the male part of the flower that contains the pollen) and then let it cover their bodies by rolling around in it. So if you ever hear a bumblebee buzzing there is a reason for their seemingly strange behavior. Male bumblebees do not have pollen baskets and are somewhat smaller.
Their bodies are covered with fuzzy hairs that collect pollen as they visit each flower. Many times you will see a bumblebee completely covered in pollen granules and looks yellow all over. Sometimes they will find just the right flower and take a pollen bath, like in this rose picture, and roll around in the flower’s stamens (the male flower part) that contain the pollen.
When they groom themselves the pollen on their bodies is collected and put it into the baskets on their legs. They moisten the pollen with nectar so it becomes sticky enough to stay put in the basket. Each bee has a comb like structure located on their front legs just for cleaning their antennae. They also have brush like hairs on their middle legs that they use to clean their entire bodies with just as we would brush our cat they brush off the pollen and place it in their pollen baskets.
So as they clean, and preen, themselves of the pollen that they have collected and comb and brush it into the area on their hind legs that is the pollen basket so it can be transported back to their home. Bee pollen is the food for their babies in the nest when they hatch. Bee pollen is a very nutritious protein because it contains all of the 22 amino acids that humans need but can’t produce. Bee pollen is a superfood.
They generally only sting when provoked or their nest is in danger. I work in the garden with them nectaring all around me and have never been stung. The only time I’ve ever been stung was at my great-grandfather’s house in Tennessee when my husband and I disturbed a roll of old carpet that had a colony of bumblebees in it. One single bee chased me about a block down the road and stung me right on the top of my head. She apparently meant business and wanted to make sure I wouldn’t return to disturb her precious home.
Bumblebees do not die once they sting and can sting repeatedly unlike honeybees. Honeybees die because their sting structure pulls away from their body once they sting for defense because the stinger stays on the victim. But in bumblebees that’s not the case and they can sting repeatedly because their stinger does not get pulled out of their body when they use it for defense.
Habitat & Range
Bumblebees are found in open farmland, fields, and suburban gardens of the eastern and central United States. Bumblebees can be found from Mexico to southern Canada as well as in much of the western mountains through California.
They will nectar on just about any type of flower. They prefer blue and purple with an open shape such as an aster, but will use flowers with longer tubes by cutting into the base of the flower to access the nectar.
This IFAS article shows the range map, in Florida, for each species – Bumble Bees Of Florida.
Anatomy & Identification
Identifying bumblebees can be difficult, but there are several distinguishing features that can help.
The bumblebee has a body part in the center of the thorax called the scutellum. The scutellum can be a distinguishing feature when a person is trying to ID through the process of elimination. Most species in Florida, with the exception of the American bumblebee, have a yellow thorax and a black circle on the scutellum. The American bumblebee’s scutellum is entirely black.
Another identifying feature are the bands of black and yellow segments on their abdomen called tergites. On female and queen bumblebees the abdomen has six segments and the males have seven. The tergites are referred to as T1, T2, etc. So the tergites are an important feature for identification as well as the scutellum. Bees are really fast and the best way for a proper ID is usually a photo that you can compare to others online or in your photo collection.
Food
Bumblebees collect flower nectar and pollen. They eat some while they are foraging but take most back to their colony to make a food called bee bread to feed the growing bee larvae.
Bumblebees all have long black and yellow hairs. The females have pollen baskets on their back legs and when they groom themselves they put the pollen in those baskets to keep it safe for transporting back to their colony or home. Sometimes bumblebees will make loud buzzing sounds to shake or vibrate the pollen off the flower’s stamens (the male part of the flower that contains the pollen) and then let it cover their bodies by rolling around in it. There is a reason for their seemingly strange behavior.
Their bodies are covered with fuzzy hairs that collect pollen as they visit each flower. Many times you will see a bumblebee completely covered in pollen granules and looks yellow all over. Sometimes they will find just the right flower and take a pollen bath, like in this rose picture, and roll around in the flower’s stamens (the male flower part) that contain the pollen.
Then they fly off to either their nest, or a safe spot, and groom themselves to collect the pollen and put it into the baskets on their legs. Each bee has a comb like structure located on their front legs just for cleaning their antennae. They also have brush like hairs on their middle legs that they use to clean their entire bodies with just as we would brush our cat.
So as they clean, and preen, themselves of the pollen that they have collected and comb and brush it into the area on their hind legs that is the pollen basket.
The female bees have pollen baskets that they store the collected pollen in to to take back to the nest where they make a food called bee bread, which is a combination of nectar and pollen, that they feed to the growing larvae in the nest.
Some literature I have found states that bumblebees have two stomachs. I have not found any authority that says this is true. Rather what they have is a structure that restricts the flow of nectar from the stomach to the intestines.
The structure between their stomach and intestines is called the proventriculus. It can restrict the emptying of the stomach so the bee will have a stomach full of nectar when she returns to the colony. She only uses what she needs for energy during that day’s foraging.
Nesting and Young
Common bumblebee colony sites include abandoned mouse burrows and crevices in buildings. I have also found them in old rolls of carpet and piles of old wood. Most literature states that they always nest below ground but I have found nests in the sides of buildings and stored items in sheds so it’s not a hard and fast rule that they just nest in the ground.
They construct a waxen comb in which to rear young. Only queens survive the winter, and these produce the first generation of workers on their own early in the spring. The adult bees feed a concoction of nectar and pollen called “bee bread” to the growing larvae while the adult bumblebees eat nectar and pollen from the flowers they visit.
“They nest in colonies of 25 to 400. Most will die at the end of the summer, leaving only a few mated queens, which hibernate through winter and emerge in spring to form a new colony. In the span of a year, there may be several generations of workers and males serving a single queen. ….
In the springtime a new queen bee chooses a nesting site and forages for nectar and pollen for herself and to produce “bee bread” within the nest for her offspring. The queen lays eggs that develop into female worker bees throughout the spring and summer. Males and reproductive females are produced at the end of the summer; they leave the colony and mate, and the mated females find a place to overwinter”. [2]
Conservation
We are losing native bees at an alarming rate because of rampant pesticide use and habitat loss.
Here’s what you can do in your green space to help any, and all, bees. Actually not just bees but all insects that you share your green space with can benefit from your more caring practices.
*Plant as many native flowering plants as you can that bloom during different seasons of the year so the bees have food all year.
* Eliminate the use of pesticides and herbicides.
* Plant a mix of annual and perennial plants as well as plants that bloom at different times to increase availability of food.
* Reduce mowing to prevent disturbance of nests or queens that may be hibernating just under the soil until spring.
* Do not pick up leaves in the fall. Leave them for shelter for insects and bees.
* Leave areas of your property natural so bees, and other insects, that nest in the ground will have areas for nesting.
* Create log piles for solitary bees to nest in. These log piles can also become homes for bumblebee colonies.
You can also help by joining Bumblebee Watch.org and uploading and documenting sightings of bumblebees. This information helps researchers determine the status of individual species and their conservation needs. Their site has a lot of information as well as a Bumble Bee Field Guide to help with identification.
You can download a free pdf Guide to Bumble Bees in the Eastern United States at the Xerces Society. Here is a sample page below.
Watch my video to learn about the five species of bumblebees we have in Florida and how to tell them apart!
