northeast-flora-and-fauna

I got 2 confirmations on this ID so I think we can be fairly confident that this is a Golden Northern Bumblebee . (It does have a prominent black band on its thorax and an especially yellow abdomen like any good Golden Northern Bumblebee.) Despite the "northern" part of its name, it can occasionally be found in places like Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia. The name isn't entirely inappropriate though, since it does sound like they're more common in the northeast than down south. Each spring the queens emerge from hibernation and feed on nectar/pollen until they're strong/healthy enough to start a colony. They'll each build a nest and lay 8-10 eggs for whom she provides honey. When these bees grow up, they take over the foraging and the care of the next generation of eggs the queen lays; at this point the queen's responsibilities shift from being a do-everything mom to mostly being the egg-layer. In the fall, some of the eggs develop into males (drones) and n...

This is probably an Common Eastern Bumblebee , 1 of our most commonly seen bumblebees, but other bumblebees in the area can look similar, especially the Brown-belted Bumblebee and the Two-spotted Bumblebee . (Presumably the bumblebees have no difficulty distinguishing their species from the others, but IDing them can be tricky for us humans.) I have to admit that the 1st time I saw a bee with those orange blobs [1] on the legs, I wondered whether it was due to disease or some sort of parasite, but it turns out that they are pollen baskets . While "basket" may make you think of a container, bee pollen baskets are basically all pollen shaped into an oval that the bee can carry home. Quite a few bees will use pollen baskets, including honeybees , bumblebees , stingless bees , and orchid bees . My guess is that the presence of pollen baskets suggests that this particular bee had a successful day of pollen foraging. September 7, 2020 at the John Clyde Native Grassland Preserve Ph...

Here's a Western Honeybee harvesting nectar and pollen from late last summer. She drinks nectar in 2 ways: When drinking something with relatively little sugary nectar, she'll drink by sucking. When drinking something sugary and more viscous, she'll lap it up. She's also bringing pollen back to the hive for food. You can see the orangish globe on the abdomen; that's her pollen basket . While nectar mostly provides the carbohydrates that bees need, pollen provides them with protein. Fortunately for plants, while honeybees take as much pollen as they can for their own needs, they still end up spilling some of it, pollinating many plants while doing so. Though there is no doubt that honeybees are important to agriculture, they can contribute to the decline of native pollinators and the spread of non-native plants . It would probably be better if honeybees could be restricted to pollinating crops rather than mixing with nature, though that goal falls somewhere between...

I think this is an Eastern Common Bumble Bee . At least one person on iNaturalist agreed with this identification, it looks plausible, and this is considered to be one of the most common (hence in name) of our bumble bees. Bumble bees are sometimes confused with other insects like honey bees or carpenter bees or bumble bee mimics like the Snowberry Clearwing Moth and some hover flies. While honey bees and carpenter bees are obviously related, flies and butterflies are basically just trying to look like someone who can sting you ( Batesian mimicry ). Though their hive-dwelling honey bee cousins get a lot of the love and attention, technically they're an invasive species (albeit an important one for agriculture/horticulture). If you're trying to support native wildlife, supporting our native bumble bees is an excellent start. I'm thinking that the brown mass on the back leg is a pollen basket , the way that a bumble bee can transport pollen back to its nest. August 16, 2020...