Bombus terricola

Bombus terricola, the yellow-banded bumble bee, is a species of bee in the genus Bombus. It is native to southern Canada and the east and midwest of the United States. It possesses complex behavioral traits, such as the ability to adapt to a queenless nest, choose which flower to visit, and regulate its temperature to fly during cold weather. It was at one time a common species, but has declined in numbers since the late 1990s, likely due to urban development and parasite infection. It is a good pollinator of wild flowers and crops such as alfalfa, potatoes, raspberries, and cranberries.

B. terricola belongs to the order Hymenoptera, which consists of ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies. B. terricola belongs to the family Apidae, which encompasses bumble bees, honey bees, stingless bees, and more. Within this, it is part of the genus Bombus, which consists of bumble bees. Kirby first defined this species in 1837. Bombus occidentalis has been speculated to be a subspecies of B. terricola, but most experts now agree that it is its own distinct species. B. terricola is also closely related to B. affinis both phylogenetically and in terms of pheromone signalling. Oftentimes, the B. terricola is so similar to B. affinis that members of B. affinis can invade and dominate entire B. terricola nests without the hosts knowing.

The yellow-banded bumble bee is black and yellowish-tan, and has a characteristic fringe of short yellow-brown hairs on its fifth abdominal segment. The queen is about 18 mm (0.7 in) long. The front half of the thorax is yellowish-brown, as are segments 2, 3 and 4 and the sides of segment 6 of the abdomen. The other parts of the thorax and abdomen are black. The worker is similar in appearance to the queen but smaller at a length of 9 to 14 mm (0.35 to 0.55 in). The male is intermediate in size, being 13 to 17 mm (0.5 to 0.7 in) long. In the male, abdominal segments 2, 3, and 7 are yellowish-brown as are usually the sides of abdominal segment 6.

Bombus terricola occupies the eastern and Midwestern parts of the United States as well as southern Canada. They are known to occupy a wide range of habitats including urban areas, meadows, grasslands, wetlands, woodlands, and farmlands. They can also occupy alpine meadows to lowland tropical forests.

In B. terricola, there are three phases of colony development. The first phase, known as colony initiation, begins when a solitary queen starts to produce her first workers by laying diploid eggs. This leads to further eusociality within the colony and the queen's continued efforts to produce more worker bees. The emergence of workers is essential for colony growth. The onset of the second phase, known as the switch point, is when the queen stops laying diploid eggs and starts making haploid eggs to produce male bees. During the third phase, the workers exhibit overt aggression towards each other and towards the queen. The beginning of the third phase is known as the competition point. Reciprocal oophagy also occurs during this third stage.

In Bombus terricola, there are female-biased investment ratios. The workers of the colony try to bias the sex ratios to be 3:1, in favor of the worker bees, which are female. The workers attempt to bias the sex ratios so that they can benefit for their own gene propagation; however, the queen tries to bring the sex ratio back to a favorable 1:1 of males and females for her own benefit as well. This process is referred to conflict between kin and is commonly seen in bees. B. terricola queens usually have a single mating opportunity in one mating flight with multiple males; the queen then stores all of the sperm in a spermatheca, from which only one sperm will get to fertilize her egg.

Sometimes, some B. terricola colonies become orphaned. If there are feeble and weak queens, the queen has a decreased ability to fertilize eggs or cannot fertilize them at all. With declining queen vigor, worker-laid male eggs became more common. Furthermore, the highest proportion of worker-laid male eggs was observed in smaller colonies. Due to the absence of a strong queen leader, these male-dominated colonies attempt to get young, strong queens back because that would be in the best interest and benefit for the colony.

Bombus terricola congregate in nectar rich areas. They can discern which flowers have been previously visited by other bees or are depleted of resources such as nectar or pollen. They usually visit consecutive flowers in one direction and do not return to previous flowers. They tend to go to areas that are rich in resources and usually do not visit these areas again once the bees deplete the resources. Instead, it has been found that B. terricola expend energy to fly to new locations of food sources. Although the flight costs energy, they expend it for future profit in finding areas abundant in resources. The mechanism of their foraging beyond this information is currently unknown; it is also unknown whether they do not return to previously visited sites due to memory of the flowers or memory of landmarks (such as a nearby tree).