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Sticker of Mesoamerican bumble bee
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Mesoamerican bumble bee

Bombus ephippiatus

The Mesoamerican bumble bee is a fluffy bee from the mountains of Mexico and Central America. It comes in many colours: its fur can be white, yellow, orange, red, brown or black. Two bees of the same kind can look really different.

Lives in
Mexico and Central America, in pine and oak forests in the mountains
Top speed
about 16 km/h (9.9 mph)
Flying, estimate
What does it eat?
It drinks nectar and collects pollen from many kinds of flowers.
For real!Photo of Mesoamerican bumble bee
Picture by Patylandavr. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It lives high up in the mountains, and living on separate mountains may be why it has so many colour patterns.

2

In some places it is busy all year round.

3

It is very good at pollinating tomato plants.

4

People take queens from the wild to use on farms, and too much of that could harm the bees.

you asked

Most asked questions about Mesoamerican bumble bee

?Where does the Mesoamerican bumble bee live?

In Mexico and Central America, mostly in mountain forests of pine and oak.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Bombus ephippiatus
Group
Bees and bumblebees
Family
Apidae
Classification
Insecta > Hymenoptera > Apidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Bombus ephippiatus (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 Patylandavr. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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More from the same group: Bees and bumblebees

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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