In Atlantic Canada, commercially managed bees, such as honey bees, are the main insects used for pollination, but native bees also play an important role in wild blueberry pollination. Some of the native pollinators involved in pollination include bumble bees, andrenid bees, halictid bees and mason bees⁽¹⁾. Bumble bees (genus Bombus) use floral sonication or buzz pollination while foraging, which involves vibrating the flower to allow pollen to be released from the anthers. Wild blueberries have coevolved with bumble bees to allow the release of pollen using this method⁽²⁾. Given the symbiotic relationship bumble bees have with wild blueberries, and their suitability for Atlantic Canada’s climate, bumble bees are very efficient pollinators in the Maritimes. Read this week’s blog to learn about the multiple species of wild bumble bees that contribute to blueberry pollination in the Maritimes, and key features to identify them.

Get to Know Your Bumble Bees

Eastern Canada has a large diversity of bumble bees, with over 18 known species found in our region, and over 40 species found throughout Canada. That being said, some are found foraging around blueberry fields in Atlantic Canada more often than others, and those are the species being highlighted with the information provided.

Bombus impatiens, the common eastern bumble bee, is the most encountered bumble bee across eastern Canada. The species is highly adaptable and can live in country, suburbs, and urban cities³. Their adaptability makes them a great pollinator species, leading to an increase in their commercial use. When identifying the common eastern bumble bee, queens have bigger bodies measuring 17–23 mm. Workers have bodies that are 8.5–16 mm, and males have bodies that are 12–18 mm⁽³⁾. Queens and workers are both black with a yellow thorax and yellow first abdominal segment. Drones slightly differ in their coloring, where they have a yellow face and head⁽⁴⁾.

Bombus impatiens ©ATTTA (2023)

Bombus ternarius, commonly known as the orange-belted bumble bee or tricolored bumblebee, is a yellow, orange, and black bumble bee. The species is also common throughout eastern Canada⁽⁵⁾. Bombus ternarius is a small, fairly slender bumble bee. The queen is 17–19 mm long. The workers are 8–13 mm, and drones are 9.5–13 mm in length. The queens and the workers have black heads, with a few pale-yellow hairs. The anterior and posterior thorax and the first and forth abdominal segments are yellow. Abdominal segments 2 and 3 are orange, and the terminal segments are black^(6,7). The drone has a yellow head with a few black hairs^(6,7).

Bombus ternarius ©ATTTA (2023)

Bombus bimaculatus, the two-spotted bumble bee, can be found throughout Atlantic Canada. The bee's common name comes from the two yellow spots on its abdomen⁽⁸⁾. Queens and workers have a black face with a triangular patch of yellow hairs on the vertex. Their thorax is yellow except for a shining area on the disc that is bordered by black hairs⁽⁹⁾. Drone faces have intermixed black and yellow hairs⁽⁹⁾.

Bombus bimaculatus ©Sheffield and Palmier (2023)

Bombus vagans, the half-black bumble bee, is a small bumblebee with a wide distribution in North America⁽¹⁰⁾, and present throughout eastern Canada. The head, thorax and first two segments of the abdomen are yellow while the rest of the abdomen is black, hence the name “half-black”⁽¹¹⁾. The face has a mixture of yellow and black hairs, and the thorax is covered in shaggy yellow hair except for a smooth central portion which is bare and shiny⁽¹¹⁾.

Bombus vagans ©Koch et al. (2012)

Bombus rufocinctus, the red-belted bumble bee, is another species found in Atlantic Canada. The queen is 16–18 mm long. She is black with scattered gray and yellowish hairs on the head. Her abdomen has many bright yellow hairs and areas of reddish hairs⁽¹²⁾. The worker is 11–12 mm long. She is similar to the queen, but she may have longer hair. The male is 12–13 mm long. He is mostly black with more yellow on the head and abdomen⁽¹²⁾.

Bombus rufocinctus ©Ron Payne (Idaho Official Government Website)

A final species to mention is Bombus terricola, the yellow-banded bumblebee, which is native to southern Canada. It was at one time a common species but has declined in numbers since the late 1990s⁽¹³⁾. The Xerces Society for Insect Conservation has placed Bombus terricola on their "Red List" of endangered bees. The yellow-banded bumblebee is black and yellow and has a characteristic fringe of short yellow-brown hairs on its fifth abdominal segment⁽¹³⁾. The queen is about 18 mm long. The worker is similar in appearance to the queen but smaller at a length of 9–14 mm⁽¹³⁾. The male is intermediate in size, being 13–17 mm long⁽¹³⁾.

Bombus terricola ©COSEWIC (2015)

It is important to remember the role native pollinators have when it comes to wild blueberry pollination. The background pollination provided by bumble bees and other native pollinators is not insignificant, so, as an industry, there are important steps and considerations for protecting these native pollinators that, in turn, will benefit the industry.

References

Sheffield, C.S., Kevan, P.G. and Smith, R.F., 2003. Bee species of Nova Scotia, Canada, with new records and notes on bionomics and floral relations (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, pp.357-384.
De Luca, P.A. and Vallejo-Marín, M., 2013. What's the ‘buzz’ about? The ecology and evolutionary significance of buzz-pollination. Current opinion in plant biology, 16(4), pp.429-435.
Williams, P.H., Thorp, R.W., Richardson, L.L. and Colla, S.R., 2014. Bumble bees of North America: an identification guide (Vol. 89). Princeton University Press.
Plath, O.E., 1934. Bumblebees and their ways. Bumblebees and their Ways.
Eaton, E.R. and Kaufman, K., 2007. Kaufman field guide to insects of North America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Richards, O.W., 1946, September. Observations on Bombus agrorum (Fabricius)(Hymen., Bomhidae). In Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London. Series A, General Entomology (Vol. 21, No. 7‐9, pp. 66-71). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Cumber, R.A., 1949. The biology of humble-bees, with special reference to the production of the worker caste. The Royal Entomological Society of London.
Devore, B. 2009. Pollinators. Department of Natural Resources: 12.
Medler, J.T. and Carney, D.W., 1963. Bumblebees of Wisconsin.
Hatfield, R., Colla, S., Jepsen, S., Richardson, L.L., Thorp, R.W. and Jordan, S.F., 2014. IUCN Assessments for North American Bombus spp. for the North American IUCN Bumble Bee Specialist Group. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Available online: https://xerces. org/sites/default/files/publications/14-065. pdf (accessed on 18 August 2020).
Colla, S., Richardson, L. and Williams, P., 2011. Bumble bees of the eastern United States. USDA Pollinator Partnership.
Owen, R.E. and Plowright, R.C., 1988. Inheritance of metasomal pile colour variation in the bumble bee Bombus rufocinctus Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Canadian journal of zoology, 66(5), pp.1172-1178.
Hatfield, R.G. and Jepsen, S.A.R.I.N.A., 2021. A conservation conundrum: protecting bumble bees under the California Endangered Species Act. California Fish Wildlife J, 107, pp.98-106.

Connecting with ATTTA Specialists
If you’d like to connect with ATTTA specialists or learn more about our program, you can:
visit our website at https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/
Email abyers@perennia.ca

The ATTTA Team was busy last week attending meetings for Atlantic wild blueberry associations. Last Thursday, April 4^th, ATTTA attended the PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association annual general meeting in Charlottetown, PEI, where the team gave a program update and engaged with PEI blueberry growers and beekeepers. Following that, on April 5^th, ATTTA was pleased to attend and present at the Wild Blueberry Producers’ Association of Nova Scotia spring information meeting in Truro, NS. Read this week’s blog to learn the highlights of both blueberry meetings.

A Review of PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association AGM 2024

The PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association held their annual general meeting last week on April 4^th, where there were approximately 60 industry members in attendance. The meeting started with a market update from Gilbert Lavoie (Forest Lavoie Conseil). Lavoie discussed wild blueberry production, inventory, supply, sales, importing and exporting, and prices for both Quebec and the Maritime provinces. In the Maritimes, there was 126 million lbs. of wild blueberries produced in 2023. The price of frozen wild blueberries has dropped sharply ($1.45 per lbs.) due to the inventory of frozen blueberries remaining so high this past year. Lavoie discussed the strategy of the Wild Blueberry Association of North America (WBANA) to improve the market of wild blueberries, where there will be an emphasis on the value of wild blueberries compared to cultivated blueberries. There is also a need for both volume and price stability within the wild blueberry sector.

Amy Argentino (Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada - FVGC) discussed the work of FVGC, which is the national advocate for fruit and vegetable growers in Canada. Matt Ramsey (PEI Federation of Agriculture) discussed the challenges and opportunities for wild blueberry growers to lower their carbon footprint, and some of the incentive programs that are in place. Patrick O’Neil and Wade Dover (WBANA) presented on the history of WBANA and introduced Patrick as the new executive director of WBANA.

The ATTTA team was pleased to give a program update during the PEI meeting, where the team discussed their research projects for the upcoming field season. Cameron Menzies (PEI Department of Agriculture and Land) provided a wild blueberry extension report. The day concluded with the PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association annual business meeting. Thank you to all members of the PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association who helped organize this great event, and to those who work to support the wild blueberry industry of PEI.

Wild Blueberry Producers Association of Nova Scotia Spring Information Meeting

The ATTTA team was pleased to attend and present at the WBPANS spring information meeting on April 5^th, where there were more than 100 industry members in attendance. The meeting started with a WBPANS update from David Harrison (president) and Peter Burgess (executive director), where they discussed the work of WBPANS for the past year, and the upcoming plans of the association.

Dr. Andrew Byers of the ATTTA Team gave a presentation on spraying best management practice around pollinators. This information is available in the recently published best management practices guide “Protecting Pollinators from Pesticides – Wild Blueberry”, which is available online. ATTTA intends to continue providing workshops and events around this best management practices guide, as this information is vital to beekeepers and blueberry growers in Atlantic Canada.

Hugh Lyu (Perennia Food and Agriculture Corp.) provided a wild blueberry management and production update for the Nova Scotia sector. Hugh discussed how winter conditions may have impacted wild blueberry crops, and most growers are optimistic about their crops entering the new growing season.

During the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture program updates, it was reconfirmed that the Apiculture Sustainable Health and Growth program, will be available in 2024, among many other beneficial programs for farmers.

The spring meeting concluded with a panel discussion on innovative on-farm practices. This involved a talk about the benefits of two step mowing (rotary followed by flail mowing); the benefits of using weather stations as a blueberry grower; and the advantages of various sprayer equipment. Thank you to all members of WBPANS who helped organize this spring meeting.

Reminder – The “Protecting Pollinators from Pesticides – Wild Blueberry” Best Management Practices Guide is Available Online

The ATTTA Team would like to remind blueberry growers and beekeepers that the best management practices guide “Protecting Pollinators from Pesticides” is available on the Perennia website: https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/ in both English and French. The focus of this guide is on minimizing the impacts of pesticides on pollinators and is meant for all those involved in wild blueberry production.

Connecting with ATTTA Specialists
If you’d like to connect with ATTTA specialists or learn more about our program, you can:
visit our website at https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/
Email abyers@perennia.ca

Pages