Today’s letter Y is for Yellow. It turns out there aren’t many (any?) body parts that start with Y, especially for bees. If you know of one, whether in bees or humans, please let me know. Honey bees, while often shown with yellow in drawings, tend more to brown and black, or perhaps with yellow-orange bands. There are plenty of yellow bumblebees, though, and there is even a genus Hylaeus referred to as yellow-faced bees.

Some bees with “yellow” in their name include the following:

• Bombus vosnesenskii, the yellow-faced bumblebee, is common along the west coast of North America.
• Bombus fervidus, the golden northern bumblebee or the yellow bee, can be found throughout North America, even as far north as Alaska. This important pollinator has seen significant declines in population since 1900.
• Bombus terricola, the yellow-banded bumblebee, is native to southern Canada and the east/mid-west of the United States. It has also seen declines since 1900.
• Hylaeus, the yellow-faced bees, is a large genus of over 500 species of bees. They are unique in that they carry pollen in their crop (first stomach) rather than externally, and regurgitate the pollen into the cell for larval food.

Even though it is the middle of winter here in the northern hemisphere, we can still dream of yellow bees.

May you prosper and find honey.