Bumblebee on Flowering Thistle; photo by keagiles. Click on the photo for a larger image; higher resolution versions available upon request.

A second bumblebee on a thistle flower. Photo by keagiles. Click on the photo for a larger image.

Closeup view of the bumblebee.
Photo by keagiles.

These bumblebees were “captured” along the Marshall Mesa Trail near Boulder, Colorado, USA — one of my favorite places to hike. Note: These are not the same species of bumblebee as in my earlier BBC Bumblebee post — In fact, there are more than 250 known species, according to Bumblebee.org. Wow. Kind of like butterflies, except on a smaller scale (there are more than 20,000 species of butterflies, according to the North American Butterfly Association).