TheThe BumbleBumble BeesBees ofof the Pacific Northwest A product of the USDA-ARS Pollinating Research Unit July 2014 bumble bee facts the circle of life • There are 240 describe species worldwide Bumble bees have an annual life cycle. Depending

• Central Asia boasts the highest diversity of on the species, latitude, and elevation, mated bumble xbumble bees bee queens will emerge from their hibernacula in the late winter or early spring. Upon emergence bumble • The western bumble bee has recently been bee queens will first forage for nectar to power their xdetected in Olympic National Park, a discovery nest searching activities. Bumble bee queens may be xnearly 10 years in the making! seen flying low to the ground in a zigzag pattern,

• Some bumble bee species look very similar to evaluating the suitability of potential nest sites. xother bumble bees. This is called serial However, when they are in transit between nest ^ Female Yellow head bumble bee, Bombus flavifrons, foraging on searching activities, they tend to fly extremely fast, xmimicry. rose blossom in Olympic National Park. ^Bumble bee life cycle. Every fall reproductive bees will seek out potential mates during their and are almost impossible to capture and identify. mating flight. Each nest is founded by a single who are the bumble bees? queen. The development time from egg to full adult Bumble bees account for less than 1% of the some bumble bee is about 4-5 weeks. After the nest 20,000 described bee species on our planet. ^Unlike female bees, achieves adult workers, the bumble bee queen will However, the lack of species diversity does not males bees cannot sting. no longer go on foraging flights. The queen will equate bumble bees as insignificant members of Here is a male Fuzzy depend entirely on her offspring to bring food horned bumble bee (B. terrestrial ecosystems. On the contrary, bumble bees (pollen and nectar) back to the nest to feed belong to an illustrious group of “ecosystem mixtus) taking a sip of nectar from a daisy. developing young. Recently emerged workers will service” providers, the pollinators. They are a first take on nest duties such as feeding and conspicuous group of bees, especially in temperate incubating developing larva. Once the nest reaches a and alpine environments where they are diverse and ^Female Fuzzy horned bumble bee sufficient size, the queen will begin producing abundant. Bumble bees are generalist foragers, that (B. mixtus) foraging reproductive bees: drones (males) and gynes is, they have the ability to access and consume for pollen on (unmated queens). Reproductive bees will eventually fireweed in . pollen and nectar from a diversity of flowering go on mating flights. As the fall season wanes, the plants. Thus, a single species of bumble bee has the mated queens will search for a hibernacula to capacity to be a courier of pollen across many overwinter. Her mother, worker sisters, and brothers species of plants possessing a variety of flower do not overwinter and eventually expire. ^ Bumble bees are dependent on a diverse and abundant palette of shapes, colors, sizes and bloom periods. Despite the flowering plants in the Pacific Northwest. Be careful not to disturb the blossoms, as they may be a bumble bee’s next meal. From left, insurmountable evidence supporting the SERIAL MIMICRY Many bumble clockwise, White-shouldered bumble bee (B. appositus), Black tail importance of bumble bees as pollinators, they are bees converge on similar color bumble bee (B. melanopygus), Two form bumble bee (B. bifarius), and at great extinction risk from the effects of human patterns on their body. From left, Vosnesensky bumble bee (B. vosnesenskii). growth and development. Vosnesensky bumble bee (B. vosnesenskii), van Dyke bumble bee (B. vandykei), Obscure bumble bee (B. the buzz on bee declines caliginosus), bumble bee (B. Within the past 20 years, reports of bumble bee ^Bombus occidentalis californicus). decline have accumulated on a global scale. foraging on a Penstemon. This species likely suffered Contemporary surveys of North American bumble from a population crash research in the park bee fauna documented up to 94% decline in relative throughout the Pacific Recently, a team of bee scientists surveyed bumble abundance of wild bumble bee populations. In Northwest. bee fauna at seven Pacific Northwest National parts of the Pacific Northwest, the western bumble Parks. High elevation bumble bee communities had bee, Bombus occidentalis, has not been detected for greater diversity of species, relative to low elevation more than a decade. Furthermore, a high elevation communities. The team also found that bumble bee bumble bee, B. balteatus, may be distributed in the species at high elevations had lower genetic diversity North Cascades, but very few natural history than species that were distributed across a broad records exist to support this claim. In consideration ^ elevation gradient. To their delight, the team of the inherent ecological value of bumble bee foraging on a blossom. Notice how full her pollen discovered a never recorded population of B. ^Distribution and diversity of bumble bee pollinators, evaluating incidence, community baskets (corbicula) are on sylvicola in Olympic National Park. In the next 80 communities at seven National Parks in the composition, and genetic diversity will elucidate the her hind leg. This species years, the Pacific Northwest is predicted to Pacific Northwest. health of bumble bees in the National Parks of is abundant throughout experience temperature increases and variable the Pacific Northwest. Pacific Northwest. Today, scientists and local precipitation patterns, likely affecting the flowering communities are looking for ways to sustain plants that bumble bees depend on for food. bumble bee health throughout and Prepared by: Jonathan Koch Oregon. Photos by L. Solter, D. Rolfs, J. Strange, D. Inouye, and A. Armaghanyan.

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