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Williams, Paul H., Robbin W. Thorp, Leif L. Richardson, and Sheila R. Colla. Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wpzr9.

- has the best modern color guides for identification of both sexes, microscopic identification characters, range and natural history notes.

Give it a common name as the Common Eastern Bumble Bee.

QUEEN Length 17-21 mm., breadth of abdomen 8.5-11 mm.; black, including legs and tegulae, spurs reddish-piceous; wings lightly infuscated, veins brownish to piceous; pubescence bright yellow, copious but rather short pronotum, scutum, scutellum, mesopleura large part, and basal abdominal tergum, a few black hairs on scutum medially and some yellowish pubescence on propodeum laterally, becoming black below; a small- amount of yellowish pubescence intermixed with black vertex and occiput medially, otherwise entirely black an head, venter of thorax, legs and abdominal terga 2-6; corbicular fringe quite dense and elongate, entirely black; clypeus quite closely and finely punctate laterally and above, the broad median area shining, minutely and obscurely punctate; labrum rather broadly truncate, with a basal elevation on each side, shallowly excavated or concave between, apical margin of this area rather broadly rounded, somewhat elevated above the margin on each side; apex of mandible with pair of short but quite distinct teeth on the upper angle, otherwise broadly rounded, outer face shining, only very minutely and obscurely punctate; malar space smooth and shining, practically impunctate, considerably shorter than basal width of mandible, about one-fifth length of eye; punctures of medial area of face very fine and close, becoming somewhat more sparse and distinct toward ocelli, space between lateral ocelli and eyes shining and impunctate, vertex very finely and densely punctate medially beneath dense pubescence, becoming somewhat more distinctly but still closely punctate laterally; lateral ocelli slightly nearer eyes than to each other, and somewhat nearer each other than to margin of vertex; antennal scape slightly more than half the total length of flagellum; basal segment of. flagellum very slightly longer than segment 3, and 3 slightly longer than 2; posterior margin of hind basitarsi slightly and regularly curved; apex of tergum 6 very narrowly rounded, the surface smooth, shining and only very minutely and quite sparsely punctate.

WORKER Length 8.5-16 mm., breadth of abdomen 4-7 mm.; very similar to queen in color, pubescence and structure, usually with fewer yellowish hairs on vertex, pubescence somewhat more elongate and copious, wings somewhat paler.

MALE Length 12-17 mm., breadth of abdomen 5-6.5 mm.; black, including legs, the spurs somewhat more piceous and tegulae brownish-piceous; wings subhyaline, veins testaceous to piceous; apical margins of the terga very narrowly testaceous-hyaline; pubescence long and copious, yellowish on vertex, occiput, cheeks posteriorly and below, and on median area of face and clypeus, with erect black hairs on cheeks above, vertex laterally, face between ocelli and antennae, and with intermixed, long, black hairs on face below antennae; pronotum, scutum, scutellum and pleura in large part yellow pubescent, a few intermixed blackish hairs on median posterior area of scutum, and propodeum largely yellow; legs with yellowish pubescence at base but becoming black on femora apically and on tibiae and basitarsi; basal abdominal tergum yellow pubescent, following terga entirely black pubescent; clypeus shining, finely and quite -closely but regularly punctate beneath dense pubescence; labrum quite smooth, shining, truncate apically, lateral margin rounded, very minutely and rather sparsely punctate; mandibles slender, bidentate apically, outer surface densely yellow pubescent, completely hiding the surface, fringed below with long, curled, yellowish hairs; malar space smooth and shining, not distinctly punctate, length about equal to basal width of mandible; median area of face very finely and closely punctate, the punctures becoming somewhat more coarse and distinct but still close toward ocelli, area between lateral ocelli and eyes polished and impunctate, vertex finely and densely punctate medially beneath dense pubescence, punctures becoming somewhat more distinct but still close laterally; lateral ocelli somewhat nearer eyes than to each other, and slightly nearer each other than to margin of vertex; segments 1 and 2 of flagellum about equal in length, segment 3 somewhat longer; hind tibiae quite slender, outer surface shining and very sparsely punctate, especially apically, only slightly convex, the fringe of rather elongate, black hairs; hind basitarsi quite slender and elongate, about three times longer than the maximum width; sterna 7 and 8 and genital armature as shown (fig. 133).

DISTRIBUTION Ontario to Maine, south to Florida, March to November, January and February in Florida.

FLOWER RECORDS Abelia, Apocynum, Bidens, Cirsium, Erigeron, Eupatorium, Gelsemium, hex, Malus, Polygonum, Pontederia, Solidago, Trilisa and Vaccinium. Robertson (1929) lists the following genera: Actinomeris, Aesculus, Agastache, Amphicarpa, Arabis, Arctiurn, Aselepias, Aster, Blephilia, Boltonia, Brauneria, Camassia, Campanula, Cassia, Caulophyllurn, Cephalanthus, Cercis, Cicuta, Claytonia, Clematis, Collinsia, Coreopsis, Crataegus, Cucurbita, Delphinium, Dentaria, Desmodiurn, Dianthera, Dicentra, Diosypros, Dodecatheon, Eryngiurn, Erythronium, Frageria, Gaura, Geranium, Gerardia, Gymnocladus, Helenium, Helianthus, Heliopsis, Hydrophyllum, Impatiens, Lactuca, Liatris, Linaria, Lithospermum, Lobelia, Lonicera, Lyco pus, Lythrum, Malva, Monarda, Nelumbo, Nepeta, Osmorrhiza, Pastinaca, Pentstemon, Petalosternum, Phlox, Podophyllum, Polemoniurn, Prenanthes, Prunella, Prunus, Psoralea, Pycnanthernurn, Pyrus, Ribes, Robinia, Rosa, Rubus, Rudbeckia, Salix, Scrophulana, Scutellania, Seymenia, Sicyos, Silphium, Siurn, Smilax, Solanum, Stachys, Staphylea, Symphoricarpos, Taraxacum, Teucriurn, Tradescantia, Trifolium, Uvalaria, Verbena, Viola, Vitis, and Zizia.

Description. Queen medium to large; worker and male small to medium. Head rounded; malar space slightly wider than long in female, about square in male. Tongue length medium. Colour as in Figure 9; no colour variation recorded.

Extracted from Wallace E. LaBerge and Morgan C. Webb. (1962). The Bumblebees of Nebraska (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Bombinae). University of Nebraska College of Agriculture.

This is a relatively common species in the eastern half of Nebraska and especially common in the easternmost tier of counties.

Females: Head with black hair except a small tuft of yellow medially on vertex and rarely a few yellow hairs near antennal fossae; thorax with hairs entirely yellow; tergum 1 with pile yellow; terga 2-6 with pile black; legs with hairs black; malar space slightly shorter medially than broad; ocelli placed on supraorbital line.

Males: Head hairs chiefly yellow, black between apices of compound t- eyes and often along inner margin of eye; thorax with hairs yellow; tergum J with pile yellow; terga 2-7 with pile black (rarely with a thin line of pale hairs along apical margins of terga 2 and 3); legs with hairs black except hasal two segments and basally on femora; outer sur(aces hi nd tibiae bare and impunctCllc apicomedially; malar space about as long as broad or slightly shaner: ocelli placed 0 11 supraorbital line: compound eyes nOt swollen; first flagellar segmellt much shorter Lhan third, onl y slightly longer than second.

• Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist, Ascher and Pickering.
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System