Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Bumble bee, very LARGE and differentthe queen?, 0 by troutlule

troutlule wrote:
Have bumble bees all over my flowers, but this one is very different as it was as
large as a horsefly and as dark.
It crawled all over the monarda, pulling the tubes down and using some sort of
hard front stinger (see how little I know!) to pierce the tubes.
I took about 60 photos, snapping as the bee went round and round the monarda
pulling each tube down on about 4 plants.
Is it a regular bumble bee? Is it the queen? Or is it some different sort of bumble?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Photo shot in Hot Springs, VA 24445, on Sept. 1 at 4:30 p.m.

I can post other photos of it in action if anyone would like to see it. Thank you.

This message was edited Sep 2, 2008 2:06 AM