What do you think?
Rate this book
Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide
The essential guide for identifying the bumble bees of North America
More than ever before, there is widespread interest in studying bumble bees and the critical role they play in our ecosystems. Bumble Bees of North America is the first comprehensive guide to North American bumble bees to be published in more than a century. Richly illustrated with color photographs, diagrams, range maps, and graphs of seasonal activity patterns, this guide allows amateur and professional naturalists to identify all 46 bumble bee species found north of Mexico and to understand their ecology and changing geographic distributions.
The book draws on the latest molecular research, shows the enormous color variation within species, and guides readers through the many confusing convergences between species. It draws on a large repository of data from museum collections and presents state-of-the-art results on evolutionary relationships, distributions, and ecological roles. Illustrated keys allow identification of color morphs and social castes.
A landmark publication, Bumble Bees of North America sets the standard for guides and the study of these important insects.
More than ever before, there is widespread interest in studying bumble bees and the critical role they play in our ecosystems. Bumble Bees of North America is the first comprehensive guide to North American bumble bees to be published in more than a century. Richly illustrated with color photographs, diagrams, range maps, and graphs of seasonal activity patterns, this guide allows amateur and professional naturalists to identify all 46 bumble bee species found north of Mexico and to understand their ecology and changing geographic distributions.
The book draws on the latest molecular research, shows the enormous color variation within species, and guides readers through the many confusing convergences between species. It draws on a large repository of data from museum collections and presents state-of-the-art results on evolutionary relationships, distributions, and ecological roles. Illustrated keys allow identification of color morphs and social castes.
A landmark publication, Bumble Bees of North America sets the standard for guides and the study of these important insects.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
23 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
About the author
Paul H. Williams
35 booksLibrarian note: There is more than one author on goodreads by this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 21, 2025
There are 46 bumble bee species in North America north of Mexico. (24 or them in Colorado) I took it a step further to find a PDF on University of Colorado website that specified by counties. In my county alone there are 13 species!
I did not realize how many different color patterns within a species. It all depends on whether it is a queen, worker, or male. This seemed to be the "Bee Bible" for identification with other fantastic information regarding this beautiful insect! A must-have guide for bee lovers!
I did not realize how many different color patterns within a species. It all depends on whether it is a queen, worker, or male. This seemed to be the "Bee Bible" for identification with other fantastic information regarding this beautiful insect! A must-have guide for bee lovers!
February 11, 2024
A good overview of bumblebees in North America including their life cycle, how to attract them to your yard, threats to bumblebees and conservation of bumblebees, and some plants that they like. About half of the book is devoted to how to identify each species of North American bumblebee. This would make a great reference for anyone trying to learn more about bumblebees who wants to be able to master the complicated process of identifying individual species.
This turned out to be a great follow-up to The Beekeepers by Dana L. Church because Church went into greater detail about the bumblebee life cycle, etc. so that I already had a mental framework for much of the information that this book provides more generally.
This turned out to be a great follow-up to The Beekeepers by Dana L. Church because Church went into greater detail about the bumblebee life cycle, etc. so that I already had a mental framework for much of the information that this book provides more generally.
June 11, 2020
I've been using this book during my last few field seasons which are focussed on bumble bees of southern Ontario. It has been a huge help in identifying specimens of all species and castes. If you are studying bumble bees in North American I can't recommend this book enough!
April 6, 2024
Great book for bumble bee identification in North America. I got it this spring and I have been using it. Only one very minor complaint it would have been nice if it was organized by regions in N. America. Right now, I have a bunch of sticky tabs to quickly find my common bumble bees in my area.
October 5, 2019
A great guide to bumble bees for both amateurs and pros, invaluable in both field and lab.
January 15, 2020
It's the native bees that are truly important! The honey bee is okay, but not the keystone to pollination....
Read
March 26, 2016Winner of the 2015 Outstanding Reference Sources Award.
For a complete list of winners, please visit http://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/outsta...
For a complete list of winners, please visit http://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/outsta...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews