''Bombus griseocollis'' is a species of

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related gener ...

known commonly as the brown-belted bumblebee.NatureServe. 2015
''Bombus griseocollis''.
NatureServe Explorer Version 7.1. Accessed 6 March 2016. It is native to much of the United States except for the

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

, and to the southernmost regions of several of the provinces of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Description

The queen is 2.1 to 2.3 centimeters long and about a centimeter wide at the abdomen.Mitchell, T.B. 1962
''Bombus griseocollis''.
''Bees of the Eastern United States''. North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Bulletin No. 152. Reprinted at Discoverlife.org. Its head and face are black with scattered yellow hairs. The thorax is coated in yellow hairs. The abdomen is yellow banded with black, with a black posterior and black ventral surface. The legs are black.''Bombus griseocollis''.
BeeSpotter.org, University of Illinois. Workers are smaller than the queen, sometimes less than a centimeter long. They are similar in color pattern, but may have a brown-yellow band around the abdomen. Males are about 1.5 to 1.9 centimeters long and about 0.7 centimeters wide at the abdomen. They have very large eyes that span about two thirds the width of the head. The face and thorax have yellow hairs and the abdomen is banded with yellow, yellow-brown, and black. Eggs are white, robust, and slightly curved. The average length is 2.91 mm with a range of 2.8-3.1 mm and the diameter range is 0.8-1.00 mm.

Biology

This bumblebee can occupy many kinds of habitat, including

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s, agricultural fields, and urban areas, even densely populated cities. It is a common pollinator in

community gardens A community garden is a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for their own plo ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and it has been observed near the top of the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

over 100 stories above ground level. ''Bombus griseocollis'' has been found in British Columbia, Canada (collected in 1919) and Manitoba, Canada (collected in 1967) and every continental United States of America state. This bee feeds at many kinds of plants, such as

milkweeds ''Asclepias'' is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans ...

, prairie clovers,

echinacea ''Echinacea'' is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family. It has ten species, which are commonly called coneflowers. They are found only in eastern and central North America, where they grow in moist to dry prairies and ope ...

s, loosestrife, bergamot, pickerel weeds,

rudbeckia ''Rudbeckia'' () is a plant genus in the Asteraceae or composite family. Rudbeckia flowers feature a prominent, raised central disc in black, brown shades of green, and in-between tones, giving rise to their familiar common names of coneflowers a ...

goldenrod Goldenrod is a common name for many species of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, commonly in reference to the genus ''Solidago''. Several genera, such as ''Euthamia'', were formerly included in a broader concept of the genus ...

clover Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus ...

s, and

vetches ''Vicia'' is a genus of over 240 species of flowering plants that are part of the legume family ( Fabaceae), and which are commonly known as vetches. Member species are native to Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. Some othe ...

. The queens particularly favor

legume A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock f ...

s. This species nests underground or on the surface. Nests are generally small colonies of fewer than 50 workers, but they aggressively defend their establishments. This is a

eusocial Eusociality (from Greek εὖ ''eu'' "good" and social), the highest level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generat ...

bee, one that forms a colony that works together to rear young with labor divided amongst reproductive and non-reproductive castes. All the daily tasks in the nest are performed by worker bees of all age groups, .Cameron, S. A. (1989)
Temporal patterns of division of labor among workers in the primitively eusocial bumble bee, ''Bombus griseocollis'' (Hymenoptera: Apidae).
''Ethology'', 80(1‐4), 137-151. Specific tasks performed by workers include secreting wax and using it to glue the nest to a substrate, using harvested material to insulate the nest, incubating pupae by wrapping their bodies around the cocoons, regurgitating food for larvae, scraping wax off of discarded pupal cases and recycling it in the construction of honey pots, buzzing when alarmed, inspecting and patrolling the nest, foraging, and feeding. Males perform the task of inseminating queens. They perch in areas where young queens might pass, awaiting mating opportunities. They scent mark their perches using a glandular secretion containing tetradecyl acetate and

butyric acid Butyric acid (; from grc, βούτῡρον, meaning "butter"), also known under the systematic name butanoic acid, is a straight-chain alkyl carboxylic acid with the chemical formula CH3CH2CH2CO2H. It is an oily, colorless liquid with an unple ...

. This is likely a signal to other males rather than to females. Males of this species also help to incubate pupae, a task done only by workers in most bee species. This is accomplished by the bee wrapping itself around the cocoon and then pumping the abdomen. More than one bee (male or female) can simultaneously incubate an egg. However, males cannot raise the temperature as high as queens can, but can maintain raised temperatures.

Predation

Like many insects, these bumblebees may be attacked by parasites. Conopids (thick-headed flies) force their victims to dig their own grave; however, brown belted bumblebees show an unusual resistance to conopid mind control, with only 18% of them giving in, one quarter of the rate of other bumblebee victims.

Conservation

This is a common species in much of its wide range. Unlike many bumblebees in North America, it has experienced an average decline of 0%, and in some areas its populations may be increasing. It apparently faces no serious threats.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2163571 Bumblebees Hymenoptera of North America Insects described in 1773 Taxa named by Charles De Geer