Bug FAQShrill Carder-Bumble bee
Bombus sylvarum · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Apidae
Also called: Knapweed Carder Bee, Shrill Carder Bee
The shrill carder-bumble bee is a small bumblebee; queens are about 16 to 18 mm long and workers 10 to 15 mm. It is mostly pale yellow with a black band on the thorax, two black bands on the abdomen and an orange tip.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The bee is pale yellowish with a black thorax band, two black abdominal bands and an orange abdominal tip.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Queens measure 16 to 18 mm and workers 10 to 15 mm in length.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
It feeds on a variety of flowers, preferring those with complex shapes or long corollae.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
The queen emerges from hibernation in spring. By summer the nest may hold around 100 worker bees.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Adults are on the wing from about April through September.
Source: Wikipedia
More photos
Same family (Apidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombus_sylvarum
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.