''Bombus perplexus'' 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 taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

known by the common name confusing bumblebee.Hatfield, R., et al. 2014
''Bombus perplexus''.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 09 March 2016.NatureServe. 2015
''Bombus perplexus''.
NatureServe Explorer Version 7.1. Accessed 9 March 2016. It is native to northern North America, where it occurs across Canada and into the eastern United States. The queen is 1.7 to 2.1 centimeters long and just under a centimeter wide at the abdomen. It is mostly black with areas of pale hairs. The worker female is 1.2 to 1.4 centimeters long and half a centimeter wide. It is hairier than the queen and has more yellow hairs. The abdomen is black and yellow. The male is the same size as the worker. The mandibles have reddish tips. It has white hairs on the head and legs and yellow and white hairs on the thorax.''Bombus perplexus''.
Mitchell, T. B. 1962. ''Bees of the Eastern United States''. North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Bulletin No. 152. ''In'' Discoverlife.org. This species occurs in the maritime regions of Canada,

taiga Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North A ...

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

, temperate forests, and the

Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

. It can be found in

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

habitat, wooded areas, and urban gardens. It feeds on many kinds of plants, such as bellflowers,

thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterized by leaves with sharp spikes on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. T ...

s, honeysuckles,

penstemon ''Penstemon'' , the beardtongues, is a large genus of roughly 280 species of flowering plants native to North America from northern Canada to Central America. It is the largest genus of flowering plants endemic to North America. As well as bein ...

s, pickerel weeds, and lindens. It may be a host to Fernald's cuckoo bumblebee (''B. fernaldae'').

References

Bumblebees Hymenoptera of North America Insects described in 1863 {{bombus-stub