Introducing

Rusty Patched Bumble Bee

Bombus affinis

The wild behind the wear
Here is what you need to know.

The rusty patched bumble bee is a vital pollinator of wildflowers and numerous commercially important crops, including cranberries, plums, apples, alfalfa, and onion seed.

However, the species has declined by approximately 87 percent since the early 2000s and is now known to be present in less than one percent of its historical range.

Range

Once distributed across the eastern United States and Upper Midwest, extending into southern Quebec and Ontario, Canada. Since 2000, the species has been recorded in thirteen US states and one Canadian province.

Habitat

grassland | forest | urban | rural | wetland

Conservation Status

Listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act, it was the first bee species in the continental United States to receive federal protection. It is also listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN.

Meet the species
From the Field Guide.

Workers and males are recognizable by the marking that gives the species its name: a small rust-colored patch in the middle of their abdomen, set between yellow and black banding. Queens are the largest members of the colony and typically lack the rusty patch entirely, instead showing yellow banding in the front, followed by black in the rear.

Rusty patched bumble bees are social insects that live in colonies built around a single queen. Each spring, a queen emerges from winter dormancy, establishes a nest, and begins rearing the first generation of workers, who are responsible for foraging for food and caring for the young while the queen continues laying eggs. In late summer, the colony produces new queens, which leave to mate. By fall, the original queen and most of her colony have died. Only the next generation of queens survives the winter, each one ready to found a new colony the following spring.
The threats they're up against.

The exact cause of their decline is unknown, but evidence points to several overlapping stressors, including pesticide exposure, habitat loss and degradation, competition and disease from commercially managed and non-native bees, and climate change.

Among these threats, commercial bumble bee farming is considered one of the most significant. During the 1990s, a surge of the pathogen Nosema bombi in commercial bee colonies coincided with a rise in infections among wild populations. Because commercial and wild bumble bees come into regular contact near greenhouses and farmland, it is possible that commercial rearing helped spread the disease to wild bee populations. 

Alongside those pressures, the species also faces the loss of the habitat it depends on. Its survival depends on nectar-producing flowers and pollen, undisturbed nesting habitat near food sources, and suitable overwintering sites. However, that combination has become increasingly hard to find. Across much of the bee's range, many prairies and grasslands in the upper Midwest and Northeast of the U.S. have been converted into agricultural land or urban areas, leaving the remaining habitat relatively small and fragmented.

Let's have some fun
Because the more you know, the more you love.

Honey bees and bumble bees belong to the same family, but they differ in some key ways, from appearance and behavior to where in the world they come from. One difference is their life cycle. Unlike honey bee colonies, which can last for multiple years and number in the thousands, rusty patched bumble bee colonies live for just one year. Each spring, a single queen emerges alone from winter dormancy and builds her colony from scratch, eventually producing the next generation of queens, which will begin the cycle again the following year.

Finding love in the wild.

In the wild, courtship is serious business. Some sing for it, some dance for it, some build for it, every species does it a little differently. Meet our singles, each one hoping to make it official (or at least make it to mating season).
Amber

Amber

Madison, Wisconsin

Entrepreneur Energetic Workaholic

About Me

A weekend warrior here for the summer, looking for someone who shares a work hard, play hard energy.

Details

Interests Yoga in the park, farmers markets, philanthropy
Favorite Food Organic acai bowl with local bee pollen and chia seeds
Favorite Song “Run the World (Girls)" by Beyonce
Green Flags Community oriented, grew up with strong female role models, loves mentoring the next gen of girl bosses
Zodiac Sign Leo
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Every purchase makes an impact

10% of the proceeds from this piece go directly to the Xerces Society, whose work to protect the rusty patched bumble bee includes advocating for legal protections, restoring pollinator habitat, and leveraging community scientists to expand our understanding of where these bees still survive.
The Signature Patch Necklace
The Signature Patch Necklace
The Signature Patch Necklace
The Signature Patch Necklace
The Signature Patch Necklace

The Signature Patch Necklace

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Resources
Go deeper in the deets.

Did you fall a little in love? Same. There's so much to learn about these creatures, and we could go on about them forever. Good thing there's plenty more where this came from: the sources below will happily take it from here.