Mt Washington, Los Angeles, California
April 2, 2011
Yesterday, while working in the yard, we saw a large Bumble Bee visiting the calla lilies. By the time we returned with the camera, it was gone, but this morning, this lovely lady was spotted resting on the wisteria after a cool night. We expect she will soon be busy gathering nectar and pollen to provision a nest. We believe this is the California Bumble Bee, Bombus californicus, which Hogue, in his book Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, describes as: “yellow on abdominal segment 2 only; the rest of the abdomen and face are black.” BugGuide also has some nice images of the California Bumble Bee. We have also seen Yellow Faced Bumble Bees in our Mt Washington, Los Angeles garden.
