The historic range of the Morrison Bumble Bee includes most of the western United States from south to north and into British Columbia, Canada. Biologists who specialize in bumble bee conservation assessed the species’ population status in 2014 as vulnerable, which means that in its historic range, the species’ abundance and persistence have declined significantly.1
Abundance is, maybe, self-explanatory. Persistence has to do with how well an extant population is able to cope with and adapt to various environmental factors or changes that may put pressure on the species. For example, Is the studied species able to to persist in an area despite pressures from variables a, b, c, where ab and c are placeholders for three potential threats to the stability of a population?
The Xerces Society2 filed a petition with the relevant federal agencies requesting that the Morrison’s Bumble Bee be listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act.3
The petition was filed in November of 2023. Hopefully the requested protection will be granted by the federal government prior to January 20, 2025. The incoming administration has an adversarial view of the natural world, to the say the least. It will endeavor to undo as many environmental and species protections as possible for two reasons: 1) money; and 2) because it can.
I photographed the Morrison Bumble Bee featured here on September 23, 2019. I remember that day. I can still call up in mind a vivid picture of the surroundings. I was standing near the parking lot at the Riley Ranch Nature Preserve in Bend, Oregon. My husband and I had been hiking there and we were getting ready to leave. I wandered over a clump of Rubber Rabbitbush where I saw some bees landing on the flowers. I think there were two other native bee species present that were not bumble bees. I took photos of all three, then we headed back to our hotel.
I posted my photos on iNaturalist soon after we returned home. The bumble bee was identified by a professor who specializes in native bee taxonomy and ecology as belonging within the Subgenus Cullumanobombus. That was over five years ago and I did not think about it much for the next five years.
In December of 2024 that day all came back to me. A top identifier of the Morrison Bumble Bee on iNaturalist suggested that the bumble bee was Bombus morrisoni. I checked back with the professor who made the Cullumanobombus ID before I made a change. He agreed with the subsequent identification at the species level. (Note: Bombus morrisoni is a species within the Cullumanobombus subgenus.)
I have not spent years looking at bee physiology under a magnifying glass or a microscope. When in doubt, I defer to the subject matter experts, to knowing what I do not know, because there are folks out there who do know.
One does not need to have an advanced degree in entomology to make difference at the community science level. But there are some attributes that are helpful: An abiding curiosity about the natural world; patience and endurance (they sort of go together when one is out there for hours); and of course, humility.
- Hatfield, R., Jepsen, S., Thorp, R., Richardson, L. & Colla, S. 2014. Bombus morrisoni. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2014: e.T44937666A69004519. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-3.RLTS.T44937666A69004519.en. Accessed on 04 January 2025. ↩︎
- Morrison Bumble Bee ESA Petition FAQ. Xerces Society website. Accessed on 04 January 2025. ↩︎
- Endangered Species Act. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service website. Accessed on 04 January 2024. ↩︎
