The lemon cuckoo bumble bee belongs to a subgenus of bumble bee species that have lost their ability to collect or store pollen and are unable to rear their own young. Instead, they rely on parasitized host species. Lemon cuckoo bumble bees will invade the nests of host species and take control, forcing the inhabitants to raise and care for their offspring. For that reason, the status of the lemon cuckoo bumble bee is closely linked to that of its preferred hosts: two-spotted bumble bee, common eastern bumble bee, and half-black bumble bee. 

Lemon cuckoo bumble bees are most common in the northeastern United States, but their range can extend into southern Canada and as far west as North Dakota. The species relies on an assortment of floral groups for food, such as asters and thistles. Like most bumble bees, this species faces threats from multiple sources including pesticides, habitat loss or degradation, climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.

Learn more about climate change , and diseases that can be introduced by non-native bee species. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supports various initiatives to increase high quality pollinator habitat for native bumble bee species, including through the New England Pollinator Partnership. This collaborative effort with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation focuses on technical support and regulatory assurances to incentivize farmers and other landowners to promote pollinator conservation on their lands.