Bombus sandersoni, f, face, Giles Co, VA
Bombus sandersoni, f, face, Giles Co, VA
The Eastern Mystery Bombus. Here is Bombus sandersoni. Rather late on the scene taxonomically...described in 1913 as a subspecies of B. vagans by the Franklin (famous bumble bee dude from the Northeast) and later elevated to species status. It is the trickest to ID species in the East. The only real characters are a not too short not too malar space (space between the eye and mandible) and often a lot of white hairs on T5 of the abdomen...but maybe sometimes not having white hairs to make things tricky. Generally uncommon, generally found in heavily wooded northern and Appalachian regions and frankly irritating in its ambiguity. Also, apparently just not sexy enough for anyone to want to study it, unlike the other generally over studied species of Bumble Bees. Specimen collected up at Mountan Lake in Virginia by Barbara Abraham and photo by Brooke Goggins.
We Are Made One with What We Touch and See
We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring impassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.
- Oscar Wilde. Original public domain image from Flickr