Bombus argillaceus


Bombus argillaceus is a bumblebee species of the subgenus Megabombus, distributed from south and south-eastern Europe to western Asia.

Description

A large bumblebee, the queen has a body length of with a long proboscis, a very oblong head and dark wings. The males and workers are considerably smaller than the queen. The thorax is yellow with a broad, median, black band. The abdomen of the queen is completely black, while the males and workers have the first tergite and the centre of the second yellow, the middle part black and the tail white, except the last tergite, which is black.

Ecology

In Turkey, it lives in the mountains, usually at heights between above sea level. It has, however, been found as high as.
Its major food sources are flowering plants from the Boraginaceae, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, and Fabaceae.

Distribution

B. argillaceus is found from the eastern Mediterranean to the Alps in France, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria, over Hungary north to Cluj in Romania. In the east, it reaches eastern Kazakhstan, and in the south and south-east the Balkans, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, the Caucasus, and northern Iran.