A Bumble Bee to Remember

Jun 28, 2011

Not all bumble bees are primarily black.

Take the Bombus flavifrons.

We spotted a male Bombus flavifrons nectaring on Centaurea montana, aka perennial cornflower or mountain cornflower, recently in Mill Valley. It didn't look like many of the other common bumble bees, such as the yellow-faced bumble bee and the black-tailed bumble bee.

It was as yellow as a baby chick.

It's just one of 20,000 species of bees found globally, and one of 49 bumble bee (Bombus) species found in the United States and one of more than 250 species of bumble bees found worldwide.

Sometimes we overlook something we're not ready to see.


By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Author - Communications specialist

Attached Images:

Male bumble bee (Bombus flavifrons) nectaring  perennial cornflower (Centaurea montana). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Bottoms Up--A bumble bee (Bombus flavifrons)  inside a perennial coneflower (Centaurea montana). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bottoms Up: A bumble bee (Bombus flavifrons) inside a perennial cornflower (Centaurea montana). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)