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Sticker of Perplexing bumble bee
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Perplexing bumble bee

Bombus perplexus

The perplexing bumble bee is a fuzzy black and yellow bee from the north of North America. The workers are hairy with lots of yellow, and the queen is bigger and mostly black. It buzzes from flower to flower in forests, wetlands and gardens.

Lives in
Canada and the eastern United States, in forests, wetlands, prairies and gardens
Length
1.2 to 1.4 cm (0.47 to 0.55 in)
workers; the queen is 17 to 21 mm
Top speed
about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
Flying, estimate
What does it eat?
It visits many kinds of flowers, like bellflowers, thistles, honeysuckles and linden trees.
For real!Photo of Perplexing bumble bee
Picture by John Baker. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Perplexing bumble bee about 1.4 cm long (0.55 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 27 secondsmoves 280 times its own body length every second

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cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The queen can be up to about 2 centimetres long, much bigger than her workers.

2

Its jaws have reddish tips.

3

It lives in many places, from the cold tundra and taiga to city gardens.

4

Another bee, Fernald's cuckoo bumblebee, may use its nest to raise its own young.

you asked

Most asked questions about Perplexing bumble bee

?What flowers do perplexing bumble bees like?

Bellflowers, thistles, honeysuckles, penstemons and linden trees, among many others.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Bombus perplexus
Group
Bees and bumblebees
Family
Apidae
Classification
Insecta > Hymenoptera > Apidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Confusing bumblebee

Where the facts come from

  1. Bombus perplexus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by John Baker. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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