[Pollinator] Is B. citrinus....disappearing

[Droege, Sam]

All:

Several people have mentioned to me that B. citrinus is hard to find.  I
looked our data today and found the following patterns:

Years 2002-2014 (still a lot of 2014 data to enter)

Data are collected for lots of different reasons, but always throughout the
year.  Note that like other Bombus, B. citrinus do occur in pan traps but
not seemingly in greater or lesser percentages from B. impatiens.

[image: Inline image 1]


The ratio is the ratio of B. citrinus to B. impatiens.

B. impatiens is the presumed primary host for B. citrinus

Looks like a tanking situation to me.

sam


The February Bee

The bumblebee crept out on the stone steps.
No roses. Nothing to gather.
Nothing but itself, the cold air,
and the spring light.
It rubbed its legs together
as if it wished to start a fire
and wear its warmth.
Under its smart yellow bands
the black body shone like patent leather.
It groomed itself, like a pilot
ready for takeoff and yet not ready:
when my shadow fell over him
he flicked his wings, checking them,
and took off into the bare garden.

- Nancy Willard



-- 
*Bees are Not Optional*

*Apes sunt et non liberum*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20141202/3ae022d8/attachment.html>