neylons favoriter

Found sleeping in thistle right by the ravine. The "falling" photo is actually the bumble wedged between the stems when he fell from the underside of the thistle (ie he is in fact suspended and holding on, and not in free fall), before sleepily climbing back up onto the thistle. Quite small. I believe his coloration may be consistent with a male Bombus Suckleyi with light hair on T1 and T4.

Interesting behavior: appears to be attempted theft of pollen from the bumblebee worker by the honeybee. The honeybee was repeatedly landing on the bumblebee for at least a minute, and actually followed the bumblebee to a second flower on the bull thistle plant. On looking at the photos, it appears the honeybee worker was targeting the pollen clumps on the corbicula. She was not successful in removing an entire clump but did seem to be getting some of it off.

Fairly certain as to species ID, but curious what folks think about caste; looks like a queen to me, but from my limited sample size for queens (n=4) the visible rusty-patch is unusual. This individual was also quite small, closer to a large bimaculatus queen in size. I also saw affinis workers at this site and they were also unusually small compared to affinis workers I have seen at other sites in NE IL.

I got the identification from Beespotter. It might not be accurate. The location is a fishing pond on the grounds of a hotel in Galena, Illinois (Jo Daviess County). The hotel is on the edge of the city.

Bombus impatiens nectaring on Black Cohosh, Actaea racemosa This plant is visited in my yard by bumblebees and honeybees, but not the other smaller bees from what I have observed. Also some beetles attracted to the flowers