Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide Paperback – 30 March 2014

Great photos and color pattern schematics.

If you want to identify that bumble bee in your garden, good luck! That's what I realized after reading through this excellent guide on bumble bees. There are so many species, and the differences within a single species can sometime be even greater than the differences between some species. Having said that, if any book is going to help you with identifying them, this one will. Most of the photos are good (some less so than others) but the drawings of the various colour patterns are superb, as are the range maps. The book also includes histograms of the seasonal activity patterns of queens, workers, and males. Lots of information on food plants, habitat and behaviour of the various bees, as well as some great info on threats (natural and anthropogenic). There is also a section on attracting bumble bees - on food sources and nesting habits.

At last - an excellent, long-awaited, comprehensive guide to North American bumblebees. The authors tackle the difficult challenge of species identification with 'hand' and 'microscopic' characters and excellent photographs in each species account, as well as 30 pages of conventional, generally well-illustrated keys. Distribution maps and colour variations are covered with high quality illustrations. It's hard to satisfy both keen naturalist and specialist, but this book goes a long way to doing both. I would have liked to see references to important literature backing up some of the text, but can well understand the need to compromise between completeness and length. Overall a great work that significantly advances the study of North American bumblebees.

Tells you how to trap and preserve bees, which makes me sad and thus I don't like, but that's just me. Pretty dense with information but still accessible with incredible photos. Great tools for ID-ing queens.

I came across this new paperback volume quite by accident while looking for something else at Amazon, and instantly ordered a copy in one of those knee-jerk reactions that I sometimes come to regret. But there's no regret at all this time - what a gem I found!This is a profusely illustrated, full-color volume that will be a great introduction to our Bombus friends for anyone just beginning, while also containing useful information that will include new material for all but the most knowledgeable of bumble bee devotees. Even Sam Droege is quoted (on the back cover) as saying he learned new things that he'd find useful in his own work. The book is printed on semi-gloss paper and the images are all sharp and clear.The Introduction alone provides a great introduction to bumble bee distribution and diversity, the life cycle of a colony, and the nature of the interaction of bumble bees with plants. Maps show species richness in a large rectangular grid (probably 5 degrees of latitude by 5 degrees of longitude) across North America and the world, as well as the numbers of museum specimens of bumblebees from North America on this same grid. All but southernmost Maine is mapped in the "100-500" specimen range, with the observation that most bumblebee collecting has been around large urban centers.Chapters that follow cover bumble bee observation techniques, how to attract them, a forage guide by ecoregion, maps and season activity, bumble bee decline and conservation, threats to bumble bees, natural enemies, mimicry and distinguishing bumble bees from other insects (including some other Hymenoptera that may to the unknowing appear to be unusual bumble bees), and a "how-to" guide to using the book.This is followed by species accounts of every species known in North America, with the fauna broken down into four major subgroups, based on morphology - the last group being the cuckoo bumble bees. Each species account includes the full name and authority, two to four photographs, and a guide to identification hints, based on characters identifiable in the field with a hand lens, as well as in the lab with a microscope. A map of known occurrences is small but sufficiently detailed to allow one to know whether a species should be expected to be in Maine.Color variations of queens, workers and males are shown diagrammatically - with some species showing significant color pattern variation throughout their range. This is then followed by a short section on "occurrence," which includes the species' range and status, habitat, examples of food plants, behavior (e.g., nesting habits), and whether it is known to be parasitized by other bees or is itself a parasite of others.Following the species accounts is a beautifully photo-illustrated key to identification of both male and female bumble bees, which is then followed by a 4-page illustrated glossary and a page of bumble bee resources.I'm looking forward to some quiet time in the winter when I can sit down and spend some time absorbing everything in this volume, particularly about those species that comprise our own fauna here in Maine. This was certainly money well-spent, and at a bargain price for a colorful field and identification guide!