The rusty patched bumble bee is a half-inch of fur and work: black head, yellow thorax, and on workers and males, a small rust-colored patch.Source 1Source 2
The whole colony lives underground, usually in an abandoned rodent burrow.Source 3
It works flowers the hard way: gripping a bloom in its jaws and vibrating its flight muscles until pollen shakes loose — the buzz that tomatoes and cranberries depend on.Source 4
Each colony lives one year. Every spring, a single overwintered queen rebuilds the whole society from scratch.Source 5
Once common across twenty-eight states, it has vanished from an estimated 87 percent of its range.Source 6
In January 2017 it became the first bee in the continental United States protected under the Endangered Species Act.Source 7
The suspects are quiet ones: disease spilling over from commercially raised bees, and neonicotinoid insecticides on the landscapes that remain.Source 7Source 6
This is a species you can help at home: native flowers blooming spring through fall, no pesticides, and leaves left lying in autumn — they are housing, not trash.Source 8Source 9
Anyone with a camera can help too: photograph a bumble bee, and an expert will verify it on Bumble Bee Watch.Source 10
To witness the rusty patched bumble bee is to notice the half-inch workers holding whole meadows together.Source 4
