Bumble Bees & Carpenter Bees
What are they?
Heavy-bodied, hairy bees with no obvious waist between the abdomen and thorax. Most species are striped black and yellow or black and orange. Bumble bees live in small, social colonies that inhabit a small nest made of a few rounded cells, usually built in a hole in the ground, especially a mouse or vole hole. Most of those seen out and about at flowers are sterile females and thus able to sting but, in general, bumble bees tend to be very docile. Sterile females and males (drones) all die at the end of the year and only young queens survive the winter to form new colonies the following year. Bumble bees are important plant pollinators, but most, if not all, species are declining in number rapidly. Carpenter bees make their homes in dead wood; naturally, they would use dead trees, but they commonly also make homes in utility poles, houses and other wooden, man-made structures. This, of course, can make them unpopular but, in reality, damage is usually minimal and they are largely harmless.
Identification
Most species in this group can be identified by the extent of hair cover on the abdomen and by the precise distribution of yellow coloring on the body. In a number of species, males have a slightly different pattern of coloring to females. Queens tend to resemble sterile females but are larger. Note: in all species, be aware that hairs can rub off, especially on the back of the thorax, leaving a bare, black patch. As in all insects, the thorax is the top part of the body, which carries the legs and wings; the abdomen is the longer section lower down.
Common Eastern Bumble Bee Bombus impatiens
Length: 8.5-16mm (workers); 17-21mm (queen). A widespread and still common species, though declining throughout its range for reasons that are still not completely clear - though a decline in flowering plants seems to be at least one reason. Thorax is usually all pale yellow on the back. Abdomen has yellow hairs on the first segment only (just behind the wings).
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Eastern Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica
Length: 19-23mm. A widespread and common species, often seen hovering actively around breeding sites in woodwork. Most often, these hovering insects will be males defending a nest site, but the males are stingless and no threat to us. The thorax is covered in deep yellow or golden orange hairs, the abdomen is black and hairless. This is our only large carpenter bee species and can readily be told from bumble bees by the smoky black coloration to the wings. Males differ from females in having yellow, not black faces.
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