# Bee Identification Exercise



## WBVC

Perhaps Mason bee,mason bee,hornet,hornet


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## Amasa

#4 is a European Wool Carder Bee.

The male stakes a patch of lambs ear and will try to fend off other insects by head butting them. Later in the year the females will use the hairs from the plant as cocoon material. They're a lot of fun to watch.


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## erikebrown

Yup, that's it, a European Wool Carder Bee. Thanks, Amasa. #3 is the same bee from the front. They are quite the spectacle to watch, as you say he has an area staked out and tries to chase away the others.

So do you know #1 and #2? WVBC suggested a mason bee, but I think they look more like the Eastern Carpenter Bee pictures I've seen?

Thanks again,

Erik


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## WBVC

Mine is definitely a suggestion as I have only seen my honey bees, mason bees, bumble bees and wasps. How cool that the last 2 are carpenter bees. The antenae on the first 2 brought to mind mason bees and the hard yellow marking on the latter a wasp


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## jwcarlson

First two are bumble bees. Carpenter bees have shiny abdomens. Tough to tell if fuzzy in second pic, but it appears that it is fuzzy.


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## Amasa

Erik, this is a wild guess, but a quick google search turned up a handy guide of bumble bees in the east (and west for anyone interested). It looks like the Common Eastern Bumble Bee. 

WBVC the last two are of Wool Carder Bees. They were brought over from Europe in the early 60's to NY state to use for pollination and have been slowly migrating across North America making it all the way to the west coast. I've had them in my yard for about 10 years(?) along with an, ever growing!, ugly patch of lambs ear to support them.


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## WBVC

I think I might have been squishing them thinking they were hornets/wasps!


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## erikebrown

Yes, they do seem to have fuzzy abdomens, so probably not carpenters. I was wondering... there were so many of them.

Found this guide from the Xerces society finally that has more detailed info.

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/Eastern_Bumble_Bee.pdf

Based on this, I do think they are Common Eastern Bumble Bees (Bombus impatiens). Looks like they nest in open fields and woods, which makes sense given our area. They sure do like the Lamb's Ear. They been on it for the past couple days.

Thanks for the help,

Erik


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## erikebrown

Just FYI, I also shared the second picture on Twitter. Someone posted back and said that this bee is a two-spotted bumblebee (Bombus bimaculatus) because of the yellow on the T2 segment.

I didn't realize bumble bee identification was quite so hard 

Erik


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## Amasa

Bug identification can be a nightmare! It took me about a week to figure out what the carder bees were by sifting through pages and pages of images of black and yellow insects over on bugnet. 

Glad you finally found an answer. 

WBVC, no worries!


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