![]() ![]() You can submit photos to online groups like iNaturalist or BugGuide for more help. Taking a photo that you can refer to later is also a good way to practice. Position yourself near an active patch of fowers-blue, pink, or purple are often favored by bumble bees-and spend some time observing. Bees are easiest to identify when they are foraging. Use the distribution information to get an idea of which species are known from the area you’re in. Note that the guide is for female bees only (workers or cuckoo females). Read the following sections to familiarize yourself with bee anatomy and what to look for when trying to identify a bumble bee. The guide covers all 22 bumble bee species known in Alaska. The details of this natural history guide are laid out below, or you can download a print-friendly version of the bumble bee identification guide. Thus, bumble bees, as well as many other kinds of bees and insect pollinators, are essential members of Alaskan ecosystems. The world’s largest bee may also be the planet’s most elusive. Many animals, including humans, rely on these pollinated plants for food, shelter, and medicine. Published Febru 9 min read A version of this story appears in the October 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine. European hornets have started showing up in North America, and are as big or bigger than carpenter bees. Bumble bees are pollinators of many Alaskan wildfowers, as well as shrubs like willows, blueberries, and cranberries. The blue orchard mason bee is a productive pollinator. big blue wood bee, Xylocopa violacea, searches for pollen in a bellflower. ![]() Some species are generalists, distributed widely across habitats and regions, while others are restricted to particular habitats or known only from certain areas. Blue Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea) in search of nectar on a Greek. They are well-adapted to cold, harsh climates and live in every habitat where there are fowers offering up pollen and nectar, including forests, shrublands, tundra, wetlands, riparian areas, beaches, and gardens. Leaves may be used fresh or dry to flavor teas.Introduction to Bees of Alaska By Jessica Rykken, Entomologistīumble bees are abundant and conspicuous pollinators across most of Alaska. Flowers appear over a long summer bloom period. Sweetly fragrant, tubular flowers in whorls bloom on erect, salvia-like spikes atop stems typically growing to 24-36” tall. ‘Honey Bee Blue’ features intense blue flowers and aromatic gray-green foliage. Genus name comes from the Greek words agan meaning "very much" and stachys meaning "ear of wheat" in reference to the appearance of the flower spikes. Aromatic (anise scented), toothed, lance-shaped to ovate leaves (to 3" long) are blue green. Flowers are attractive to bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. Fragrant, tubular, 2-lipped, violet-pink flowers bloom summer-to-fall in whorls on erect, terminal, salvia-like spikes (each to 2-4” long) atop strong, rigid stems. ![]() It is native to moist grasslands, valleys and stream banks in China, Vietnam, Laos, Korea and Japan. They are the real workhorses when it comes to pollinating wildflowers. Agastache rugosa, commonly called purple giant hyssop, is an upright, clump-forming, herbaceous perennial that typically grows to 2-3' tall. The huge Xylocopa virginica, or Eastern carpenter bee, bores holes in soft. ![]()
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