Franklin's bumblebee

Franklin's bumblebee is distinguished from other bumblebees by a solid black abdomen, with a yellow U-shaped pattern on the anterior thorax.[http://phys.org/news162575495.html Franklin's bumble bee may be extinct.] Phys.org. 26 May 2009. Females have black hair on their faces and the vertices, with some light hairs mixed above and below their antennal bases, whereas most similar bumblebee species have yellow.[http://www.xerces.org/franklins-bumble-bee/ Bumble bees: Franklin’s bumble bee (Bombus franklini).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171022085652/http://xerces.org/franklins-bumble-bee/ |date=2017-10-22 }} Xerces Society. Males of this species are similar except their malar spaces are as long as they are wide, the hair on their faces is yellow, and tergum 6 has some pale hairs laterally.

The population of this bumblebee species has decreased drastically since 1998, with last sighting in Oregon, in 2006.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} Some experts, such as professor Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex,{{cite magazine |last=Goulson |first=Dave |date=25 April 2014 |title=The Beguiling History of Bees |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-beguiling-history-of-bees-excerpt/ |magazine=Scientific American |access-date=27 February 2024}} say this species is already extinct, but until more concrete evidence is shown, it has been assigned a conservation status rank of G1 (critically imperiled) by NatureServe, and categorized as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List.

A petition was submitted by the Xerces Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Center for Food Safety to the California Fish and Game Commission in October 2018 to list Bombus franklini and three others as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act.Hatfield R, Jepsen S, Jordan SF, Blackburn M and Code A. 2018. A Petition to the State of California Fish and Game Commission. https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=161902&inlineCalifornia Department of Fish and Wildlife. 2019. Evaluation of the Petition From the Xerces Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Center for Food Safety to List Four Species of Bumble Bees As Endangered Under the California Endangered Species Act. https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=166804&inline

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife evaluated this petition in a report for the California Fish and Game Commission completed in April 2019. On June 12, 2019 the California Fish and Game Commission voted to add all four bumblebees, including Bombus franklini, to the list of protected species under the California Endangered Species Act.Weiland P. 2019. Fish and Game Commission Adds Four Bumble Bees to Candidate List. Endangered Species Law and Policy. https://www.endangeredspecieslawandpolicy.com/fish-and-game-commission-adds-four-bumble-bees-to-candidate-list A subsequent legal challenge of the CESA's definition of a fish as "a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals" was eventually overruled, because the explicit intent was for all invertebrates (therefore including insects) to be qualified for protection under this legal definition.{{cite web|url=https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/C093542.PDF|title=Almond Alliance of California et al., v. Fish and Game Commission et al.|date=May 31, 2022|access-date=June 6, 2022|archive-date=June 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220607073651/https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/C093542.PDF|url-status=dead}}

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• {{FWS profile |spcode=I0IR |name=Franklin's bumblebee |sci=Bombus franklini}}

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Category:Bumblebees

Category:Hymenoptera of North America

Category:Endemic insects of the United States

Category:Fauna of California

Category:Natural history of Oregon

Category:Critically endangered fauna of the United States

Category:Critically endangered fauna of California

Category:Insects described in 1921