Bombus auricomus
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Bombus auricomus is a species of bumblebee known by the common name black and gold bumblebee. It is native to eastern North America, including Ontario in Canada and much of the eastern United States, as far west as the Great Plains.
This species creates above-ground nests in grassland and other open habitat types. It feeds at many types of plants, including thistles, prairie clovers, delphiniums, teasels, echinacea, bergamot, penstemons, clovers, and vetches.
This is a fairly large bumblebee; workers and males are about 1.7 to 2.0 cm long, while queens can be up to 2.5 cm in length. This bee was previously thought to be conspecific with the Nevada bumblebee (B. nevadensis), but the two are now considered separate species. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-And-Gold Bumble Bee sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 379th most-seen of the 822 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May to July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-And-Gold Bumble Bee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August to April, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-And-Gold Bumble Bee sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in our data
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Black-And-Gold Bumble Bee sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Bombus
The closest relatives of the Black-And-Gold Bumble Bee that you can see in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Common Eastern Bumble Bee (about 40%), Two-Spotted Bumble Bee (about 10%) and Brown-Belted Bumble Bee (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-And-Gold Bumble Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (11 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
