The bees listed below are a few of those species likely to be flying and, therefore available for observation, during March in Vermont.
What will you see in your backyard?
Photos are from the USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab. Where noted, links are to the iNaturalist page of observations made in Jericho of the listed bee species.
Frigid Mining Bee Andrena frigida, male
Females likely nest below ground in sandy soils near their Salix (willow) host plants.
Solitary (like most of our native bees): Most females are single moms who seal their children in cells and never return. Life of solitary bees means 10 months of living in its nest and 5 weeks of flying.
Frigida: Likely the first species to be active in the spring. Males have been found in late March, even with snow still on the ground. Many of these early records are from sap buckets or wounded maples, which provide sugar before the first flowers bloom. Females are specialists on Willows, and this species disappears by mid-May.
Males of Andrena may patrol nest areas and also scent-mark nearby non blooming trees.
Forages for pollen from early-spring shrubby willows (e.g. Salix discolor, S. humilis), but known to nectar from a variety of other plants including maples (Acer spp.) and plums and cherries (Prunus spp.). Records from early to mid-summer of A. frigida likely represent pollen foraging on a small subset of later blooming willows, e.g. Salix nigra.
Tricolored Bumble Bee Bombus ternarius, female
Bombus ternarius, commonly known as the orange-belted bumblebee or tricolored bumblebee, is a yellow, orange and black bumblebee. It is a ground-nesting social insect whose colony cycle lasts only one season, common throughout the northeastern United States and much of Canada. The orange-belted bumblebee forages on Rubus, goldenrods, Vaccinium, and milkweeds found throughout the colony's range. Like many other members of the genus, Bombus ternarius exhibits complex social structure with a reproductive queen caste and a multitude of sister workers with labor such as foraging, nursing, and nest maintenance divided among the subordinates. - Wikipedia.
The queen uses an estimated 600 mg of sugar per day to incubate her brood. To obtain this amount of energy, she may need to visit as many as 6,000 flowers. - "J.L. Vickruck, S.M. Rehan, C.S. Sheffield, M.H. Richards, (2011)
"
Yellow-banded Bumble Bee
Bombus terricola, female
"Vulnerable" Globally (Source: IUCN Red List)
Bombus terricola, the yellow-banded bumblebee, 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. - Wikipedia
Once common and found throughout the northeast and south into Georgia, B. terricola populations have experienced a dramatic decline over the past 15 years, and this species was recently listed as Threatened in Vermont. - Vt Ctr For EcoStudies
Unequal Cellophane Bee Colletes inaequalis, f
Colletes inaequalis is a common species of plasterer bee (family Colletidae), native to North America. Like other species in the genus, it builds cells in underground nests that are lined with a polyester secretion, earning the genus the nickname of polyester bees. C. inaequalis is a pollinator of red maple trees, willow trees, and apple trees. - Wikipedia
Click here for iNaturalist photos taken in Jericho.
Population status: Declining in the Northeast.
A female makes from one to seven trips per day for pollen, and sometimes one or two others for nectar feeding.
Ground Nester.
Programs* for interacting with nature
1. JFiN (Jericho Families in Nature).
2. Backyard Bug Safari program.
3. JULS (Jericho/Underhill Life Search).
4. iNaturalist - how to get started. (to post your photos - observations)
5. Nature-inspired single-panel comics - new comic every Saturday.
6. Six Word Insect Memoirs
7. NEW THIS YEAR: JURBIC (Jericho, Underhill, Richmond, Bolton Inverting Club).
8. Read the Vermont Entomological Society Newsletter. See Bernie's article in the Winter/Spring 2024 edition. As Fabre said in his book. "Fabre's Book of Insects", "To talk about oneself is hateful, I know, but perhaps I may be allowed to do so for a moment, in order to introduce myself and my studies."
*See posts on this blog (click on the links above) or contact Bernie for more details.
View a diagram of bee body anatomy here.
Read Fabre's Book of Insects (PDF hot link).
Hailed by Darwin as "The Homer of Insects," famed French entomologist Jean Henri Fabre (1823–1915) devoted hours of rapt attention to insects while they hunted, built nests, and fed their families. Working in Provence, in barren, sun-scorched fields inhabited by countless wasps and bees, he observed their intricate and fascinating world, recounting their activities in simple, beautifully written essays.
This volume, based on translations of Fabre's Souvenirs Entomologiques, blends folklore and mythology with factual explanation.
