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Yellow-faced bumble bee

Bombus vosnesenskii

Yellow-faced bumble bee

Nesting Preference

Usually nests in existing underground cavities, including abandoned rodent burrows. Other sheltered nest sites are also documented.

Active Time of Year

An early-emerging species, active from spring through summer and sometimes into fall. Queens can appear in late winter in milder parts of its range; local timing varies.

Identifying Characteristics

Queens and workers have yellow facial hair and a yellow band at the front of the thorax (the middle body section). Most of the abdomen is black, with a yellow band on its fourth segment. The rear of the thorax is black. Similar species, especially the obscure bumble bee, can be difficult to separate from a quick view.

Fun Fact

Like other bumblebees, yellow-faced bumblebees can use their flight muscles to vibrate flowers and release pollen. This is called buzz pollination, and it helps them gather pollen from flowers such as blueberries.

Yellow-faced bumblebees are familiar visitors to gardens and farms in western Oregon. OSU studies published in 2010 found them to be the most abundant bumblebee observed foraging in the Willamette Valley blueberry and red clover fields studied. That finding describes those surveys, rather than a permanent ranking of every local habitat.

Sources and Further Reading

Read more on Wikipedia

Solitary wasp

A solitary wasp has no colony of workers helping raise her young. A female may stock her own nest cells with food, or find a host for her developing offspring. Solitary describes social life; parasitoid describes a feeding strategy. A wasp can be both.

Social wasp

Social wasps share a nest and cooperate in raising young. In yellowjacket and paper wasp colonies, reproductive females lay eggs and workers help feed the brood and maintain the nest. They can defend that nest, so observing a forager is different from approaching a colony.

Non-native Social wasp

This is a social wasp introduced beyond its natural range. In this case the European paper wasp was introduced to North America from Europe, probably hidden in shipping materials. Non-native describes its origin, while social describes colony life.