[NatureNS] Bumble bee

User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/11.2.5.060620
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2006 11:38:34 -0300
From: David McCorquodale <david_mccorquodale@capebretonu.ca>
To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Thread-Topic: [NatureNS] Bumble bee
Thread-Index: AcbpVRm9WEUD7lVIEdunrgAKlY8GtA==
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <naturens-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
Original-Recipient: rfc822;"| (cd /csuite/info/Environment/FNSN/MList; /csuite/lib/arch2html)"

next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects

Index of Subjects
On 10/5/06 3:20 PM, "Angus MacLean" <angusmcl@ns.sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Yesterday I spent some time in Palmeter Woods (West Kentville).
> One of the Bees had an orange band across the abdomen. This is not one of
> the (14) Bombus species found in NS and  I don't know which genera it
> belongs to. I could not get a good photo yesterday (continually moving) but
> I found one that I photographed on August 17 which is here:
> 
> http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=261608676&size=m
> 
> Sorry for the quality. Can anyone offer a lead?
> Angus
> 
Angus:

There are two species of bumble bees in NS that have reddish abdomens.  The
most common. To my eye the one you have photographed is _Bombus ternarius_.
The feature I use to clinch the identification is the pattern of black on
the thorax.  It has an arrow that points back between the wings.  The top
view photos at 
http://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?search=Bombus+ternarius&guide=Bumblebees
show this.  However that is difficult to see in this photograph.

The other reddish species, _Bombus rufocinctus_ has a black middle of the
thorax, but lacks the backwards pointing arrow.

The best source for identification is Laverty and Harder. 1988.  The bumble
bees of eastern Canada.  Canadian Entomologist 120: 965-987. It has a good
series of line drawings showing colours on workers, queens and males.  For
most species this works for identification, and those that it does not work
for are pointed out.

Since records were compiled for this in the mid-1980s, there has been a
large increase in populations of _Bombus impatiens_ in NS.    In the early
1990s I did not find them on Cape Breton at all.  This fall, they are the
most common species I have seen, from Bon Portage to Georges River in Cape
Breton.


David McCorquodale


David McCorquodale
Department of Biology
Cape Breton University
Box 5300, 1250 Grand Lake Rd., Sydney, NS B1P 6L2, CANADA
902-563-1260    david_mccorquodale@capebretonu.ca  FAX: 902-563-1880



next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects