Giant Bumble Bee

Bombus dahlbomii · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Apidae

Also called: Patagonian Bumble Bee

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Giant Bumble Bee
Photo: Pato Novoa, CC BY 2.0

Queens can reach up to 40 mm in length and weigh about half to one and a half grams, making them among the world’s largest bees. They are native to southern Chile and Argentina, extending from around 30° S to the southern tip of the continent.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

The bee is mainly red-orange, with a fully red-orange thorax and a lighter orange abdomen that fades toward the end.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Their body mass ranges from about 0.5 to 1.5 g and they can be up to 4 cm long from head to tail.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

They live in forest areas that have both continuous and fragmented patches of plants and flowers.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

They collect nectar and pollen from many different plant species.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

In spring, a queen starts a new colony by finding an underground cavity. The period when the queen is alone, before workers appear, is called the subsocial phase.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

Queens normally begin colonies in the spring.

Source: Wikipedia

Lookalikes

In Patagonia it shares its range with two introduced Bombus species: B. terrestris and B. ruderatus.

Source: Wikipedia

More photos

Giant Bumble Bee photo 3
Photo: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab from Beltsville, Maryland, USA, Public domain
Giant Bumble Bee photo 4
Photo: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab from Beltsville, Maryland, USA, Public domain
Giant Bumble Bee photo 5
Photo: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab from Beltsville, Maryland, USA, Public domain
Giant Bumble Bee photo 6
Photo: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab from Beltsville, Maryland, USA, Public domain

Questions people ask

What does the giant bumble bee look like?

It is mainly red-orange, with a fully red-orange thorax and a lighter orange abdomen that fades toward the tip.

Source: Wikipedia

Are there other bumble bees it can be confused with?

It is the only native bumble bee in southern South America, but in Patagonia it coexists with the introduced species Bombus terrestris and Bombus ruderatus.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Apidae)

Western Honey BeeWestern Honey BeeApis melliferaCan stingCommon Eastern Bumble BeeCommon Eastern Bumble BeeBombus impatiensCan stingEastern Carpenter BeeEastern Carpenter BeeXylocopa virginicaCan stingBrown-belted Bumble BeeBrown-belted Bumble BeeBombus griseocollisCommon Carder Bumble BeeCommon Carder Bumble BeeBombus pascuorumBuff-tailed Bumble BeeBuff-tailed Bumble BeeBombus terrestris

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombus_dahlbomii

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

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