| Orange-belted Bumblebee | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Apidae |
| Subfamily: | Apinae |
| Genus: | Bombus |
| Subgenus: | Pyrobombus |
| Species: | B. ternarius |
| Binomial name | |
| Bombus ternarius Say, 1837 |
|
Bombus ternarius, commonly known as the Orange-belted Bumblebee or Tricoloured Bumble Bee,[1] is a yellow, orange and black bumblebee that is commonly found throughout the eastern United States and parts of Canada.[2]
Bombus ternarius is a small, fairly slender bumblebee. The queen is 17–19 mm long, the worker 8–13 mm and the drone 9.5–13 mm.
The queen and the workers are black on the head, with a few pale yellow hairs. The anterior and posterior thorax and the first and fourth abdominal segments are yellow, abdominal segments 2 to 3 are orange, and the terminal segments are black.
The drone has a yellow head with a few black hairs. The coloration of the thorax and abdomen is similar to that of the females, with the exception that the last abdominal segments are yellow on the sides. The fur of the drone is longer than that of the females.[3]
There is another species of bumblebee, Bombus huntii, common throughout the western United States, that is nearly identical in coloration to ternarius, though it has primarily yellow facial hairs rather than black.
Major plants visited include Rubus, goldenrods, Vaccinium and milkweeds.[3] Before the introduction of what are commonly known as honey bees, bumblebees were the only honey producing bee in North America, however, only in very small quantities.