Western bumblebee
The western bumblebee is a fuzzy black and yellow bee from western North America. Some have a white tip on their tail, and some have a reddish-brown stripe. It lives in a big family led by one queen, in a nest under the ground.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The queen starts the nest alone in spring, often in an old hole left by a mouse or another small animal.
A nest can have up to about 1,600 worker bees.
Only the young queens survive the winter. Next spring each one starts a brand new family.
It became much rarer in some places, but scientists have seen signs that it may be coming back.
Most asked questions about Western bumblebee
?Why are western bumblebees disappearing?
Scientists think a tiny parasite and competition with honey bees may be the reasons.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Bombus occidentalis
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Apidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Apidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Western bumble bee
Where the facts come from
- Bombus occidentalis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Stephen Ausmus, USDA ARS. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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