This past spring, Princeton University Press published an excellent new book on bumble bee identification: Bumble Bees of North America by Paul Williams, Robbin Thorp, Leif Richardson, and Sheila Colla. SONSI member Ann Sanderson illustrated the bumble bee life cycle that appears in the book.
Bumble Bee Life Cycle Illustration © Ann Sanderson

Bumble Bee Life Cycle Illustration © Ann Sanderson

 

As part of that project, Ann also illustrated some bees for a fact sheet on Bees of Ontario and she designed and illustrated a poster about what plants will aid the Rusty-patched bumble bee, an endangered species in Ontario. Ann was delighted to have the opportunity to use some traditional media for this project.

Wasp and Bees Illustration © Ann Sanderson

Wasp and Bee Guide © Ann Sanderson

Flower Poster Illustration © Ann Sanderson

Bee Poster © Ann Sanderson

 

The poster is available for free from this page of the Wildlife Preservation Canada, though the download links on that page didn’t work for me. It appears as though one could contact them to receive a copy.

Do your part for bumble bee conservation by reporting the bees you find and photograph to Bumble Bee Watch, a citizen science project that aims to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees!

Ann Sanderson has a degree in Zoology from the University of Toronto and she attended the University of California Santa Cruz Science Illustration Program. She interned at Scientific American Magazine as well as the American Museum of Natural History. Her life long fascination with nature and science includes a particular interest in bees, so she was well suited for this bee conservation illustration project.

 

– Emily D.