Identifying Bees

Common Name: Bumble Bee
Genus: Bombus impatiens

Shown here is the famous Bumble bee which we all know of. It is half yellow and half black in color. It also has hair on its body and round circular wings. When observed, this bee stayed on the flower for a couple of minutes before flying away.

Common Name: Worker Bee

Genus: Apis Mellifera

The worker bee has round circular wings with some hair on its body. When observed, we saw that this bee stayed on the flower for a couple of minutes before the strong wind forced it to stay flying away.

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Bees at the High line: Linda Haviv and Maria Kamenetskaya

Common name: Lemon cuckoo bumblebee
Genus: Bombus Citrinus
This bee was pollinating on Black Eyed Susans. It stayed on each individual flower for about 30 seconds in the center of the flower. It moved from flower to flower and collected pollen using its hind legs.

Common Name: Leaf-cutting and Resin Bees

Genus: Megachile

We spotted this big and fuzzy bee on the pink flowers depicted in the photo. It was very hard to capture this bee in a still picture sine it was moving every 3 seconds to the next flower. Since it was a bit windy, this bee held on tight to the side of the flower and collected pollen from the bottom of the plant.

Common name: Pugnata

Genus: Megachile

We spotted this bee on the Black Eyed Susan. At first we thought this bee was dead but after watching it for a whole minute we saw the bee suddenly moving and flying to a different flower. This bee stayed on top of each flower for about a minute and collected pollen using his/her front legs.

Common Name: Cuckoo Bee

Genus: Triepeolus

This big black bee with  yellow highlights was spotted on the whitish brown flower depicted above. This bee hardly stood in one place and was very quick and active. He/she hung upside down on the flower while pollinating.

Common Name: Large Carpenter Bee

Genus: Xylocopa

This big dark colored bee was spotted on a long, tube-like lavender flower but stayed on each individual flower for a minute or so. It pollinated by sticking its head in the flower. It was astonishing to watch.

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Joseph Han


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Yellow-jacket wasp, Vespula vulgeris

I saw these on the purple flowers. They flew around and didn’t really stay one flower for too long, but the strong winds may be the blame for that.

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Bumble Bee, Bombus

This was the easiest to identify because of its fuzzy yellow back. This bee stayed on the flower for about a minute before it would start hovering over another one.

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Josh and the Bees

Common Name: Bumble Bee Genus: Bombus

This bee was somewhat difficult to spot because it was blocked by the bright pink flower it was on. Stayed on the flower for a long period of time (five to six minutes) and was not startled when approached. Once it left the flower it flew around the flower a few quick times before flying back into the air.

Common Name: Honey bee Genus: Apis

This bee was easier to spot because half its body was orange. This bee did not stay long at the flower, in fact it seemed like it only stayed for a few moments. Like the other bee, I was unsure where the bee flew to next because it flew back into the air.


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High Line- Pollinator Hunting

Sarah, Justin, Svetlana, Ariella and Adam

Common Name: Worker Bee

Genus: Apis mellifera

The Worker Bee pollinated on the top part of flowers staying for 3-4 minuites and circulated from flower to flower, moving mostly due to the wind or some disturbance.

Common Name: Bumble Bee

Genus Name: Bombus impatiens

A well known bee, the Bumble Bee has hair on its body and has round circular wings. It stayed on the head of the flower for 2-3 minutes.

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Identifying Bees!

VANESSA AND SOLANA’S BEE TRIP

Common Name: Bumble Bee
Genus:Bombus
Observation: We actually observed the time he spent from flower to flower which was about 10 to 11 seconds on the first and then he would move on to the next flower. He kept flying constantly.

Common Name:Honey Bee
Genus: Apis

Observation:They had a bright yellow back that was not furry. There were various honey bees on this part of the High Line which consisted of these small white flowery plants.

Common Name:Bumble Bee
Genus: Bombus

Observation: The Bumble Bee was a entirely black furry coated bee that was relatively bigger compared to the Honey Bee. There were a few bumble bees in this section and we counted about eight bees.

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Wasps and Bees-I wish I had a Camera – Yi Jun Zhang

The Flip-cam was not designed to capture small objects, so I apologize for the blurry images.

Identified by: Yi Jun Zhang

Common Name: Yellow-jacket Wasp, Genus: Vespula

This pollinator displays side-to-side flying before landing on the flowers. It usually stays on each of the yellow flowers for 3 to 4 minutes. In contrast to most of the bees, this creature does not have visible hair, and it has an elongated body and wings.

Common Name: Bumblebee, Genus: Bombus

This is one of the more well-known bees out there. This is one of the important pollinators for wildflowers and house plants. In contrast to yellow-jacket wasp, bumblebee has more hair on its body. Its body is not elongated and its wings are more circular-shaped. This bee stays on each flower for about 4-5 minutes.

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Angela and Debbie

Identified by Angela Wu and Debbie Wong

Bombus sitkensis: stayed on flower for ten seconds, then moved onto another flower and then flew away from the wind. The flying pattern was in a zigzag pattern.

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Bumble Bee- Maxilia

Common Name: Bumble Bee, Genus: Bombus –> yellow furry back. Rested on flower head for 3 minutes, and crawled around a bit but was mostly stationary.

Common Name: House Fly Genus: Musca Domestica, Thought it was a bee but apparently it is a fly but it did look like a bee. It sat on the “dead” flower head for 2 minutes.

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Bees and more Bees – Ke and Shirley

Bee 1

Identified by: Ke Jiang and Shirley Cheung
Common Name: Bumble-Bee; Genus: Bombus
This bee stayed on the flower pictured above for quite a long time. It was not afraid of humans and allowed us to get very close to it. Its entire body is pretty fuzzy and marked with black and yellow stripes.

Bee 2

ID by Ke Jiang & Shirley Cheung
Common name: Paper wasps; Genus: Polistes biglumis
This wasp is easily identifiable because of its elongated body and clear segmentation of body parts. It has a black head and sports yellow at the adjoining segments. It also has very elongated and blade-like wings.

Bee 3

ID by Ke Jiang & Shirley Cheung
Common name: Yellow-jacket wasp; Genus: Vespula vulgeris
This wasp was very hard to capture because it constantly moved from flower to flower. It would land on the petals and crawl onto the middle. This wasp is identifiable because of the unique design of its yellow-and black body.

ID by Ke Jiang & Shirley Cheung
Common Name: Worker Honey Bee; Genus: Apis mellifera
Many of this type of bees are female and we believe that the bees we have in our pictures are female. Male bees of this kind are call drones and have typically bigger with large eyes.

ID by Ke Jiang & Shirley Cheung
Common Name: Common Eastern Bumble Bee; Genus: Bombus impatiens
Many bees land and stay around the top part of this red flower. We noticed that they move in a circular manner. Perhaps it was due to the wind.

ID by Ke Jiang & Shirley Cheung
Common Name: Wool Carder Bee; Genus: Anthidium manicatum
It is an invasive species that was introduced to North America from Europe. It stayed on the flower for around 3 minutes but because of the wind, the photo came out blurry

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Field Work

This is a place for you to post your photos, maps, species IDs, and noted behaviors from field trips and site visits around New York. You may also comment on posts by your classmates.

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