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Bev's photo is a queen _Bombus ternarius_. Once you see the red on the abdomen the next feature to look for is the backward pointing arrow of black on the thorax. This photo shows it clearly. The other species in Nova Scotia with red on the abdomen is _B. rufocinctus_. In this species the dark mark on the thorax is rounded, not with a pointed back end. A bee with limited yellow on the abdomen could be _Bombus impatiens_. This species is pale yellow and only the first segment of the abdomen is yellow. On fresh specimens the black appears velvety because the hairs are dens and short. There nine species of bumble bees that are regularly seen in Nova Scotia. In addition there are 4 species of nest parasite bumble bees, so about 13 species in total. I have a simple key that includes some photos to assist in identification of NS bumble bees that is available to anyone who would like it. There are some tricky identifications (among B. sandersoni, perplexus and vagans for example), but most can be done easily. It is not easy to ascertain populations of bumble bees at this time of year (late May). There are only queens now. Each queen attempts to start a nest. Queens are large compared to the workers that will be around later in the summer. The first workers are less than a third the size of the queens. By mid-August the workers that emerge are much large, almost as large as the queens. A successful nest will have a few hundred workers in mid-August. Therefore seeing one bee now will translate into a few hundred in late July, or none if the nest is unsuccessful. _Bombus ternarius_ and _B. impatiens_ are two common species in Nova Scotia now. When I moved to Nova Scotia in 1990 there were no records of _B. impatiens_. This is a species that is and was common in southern Ontario and southern Quebec. It is also used in greenhouses for pollination. In the early 1990s _Bombus terricola_ was common, more than 20% of all the bumble bees I saw in Cape Breton. In the past five years I have seen fewer than 10 specimens, out of many hundreds of bumble bees identified. The message here is that some bumble bees are more common now and others are very rare compared to what they were less than 20 years ago. Cory Sheffield has produced a very good checklist of the bees of Nova Scotia and would be interested in hearing about which species of bees are in various places in Nova Scotia. If you are interested in a copy of the simple key for bumblebees, please send me an email privately, I will send it to you. David McCorquodale Biology, Cape Breton University david_mccorquodale@cbu.ca -----Original Message----- From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca on behalf of bev@magickcanoe.com Sent: Mon 5/30/2011 11:19 AM To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Bees > Whereas my observations are strickly non scientific - has > anyone noticed a similar trend? > Paul * I just have this year and last for comparison, but it does seem that Bumblebees are plentiful this year. In particular, I've been seeing a good number of what I believe to be Bombus ternarius (Tricolored Bumblebees)on the dandelion around here. This is a photo of one taken May 20, 2011. http://magickcanoe.com/bees/RH-bombus-ternarius.jpg There's another larger bee with an almost all black abdomen, which I'm seeing a lot of as well. Not sure of the ID, but maybe B. impatiens. Bev Wigney Round Hill, NS
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