About Bombus sylvestris (Lepeletier, 1832)
Bombus sylvestris, commonly called the forest cuckoo bumblebee, is a small bumblebee species. Queens measure 15 mm (0.59 in) in body length, while males measure 14 mm (0.55 in). This species has a round head and a short proboscis. Its body fur is black, with a yellow collar and a white tail. Some individuals have a small number of pale hairs on the top of the head, scutellum, and/or abdominal tergite. Males of this species show variable melanism. Rare individuals found in northern Scotland have a yellow abdomen instead of a white one.
This cuckoo bumblebee is distributed across most of Europe. Its range extends from the northern half of the Iberian Peninsula to southern Italy, from southern Greece northward beyond the Arctic Circle, and from Ireland in the west to the easternmost part of Russia in the east. It occurs across the whole of Britain, but is absent from parts of eastern Scotland, the Scilly Isles, and Shetland. Most populations of Bombus sylvestris inhabit post-industrial areas, mineral extraction sites, spoil heaps, gardens, parks, woodlands, and deciduous forests, which is how it earned the common name forest cuckoo bumblebee.
