A larger version of the more frequently encountered C. campanularum; of the same general long, thin cylindrical shape, but with distinctive white bands of short hairs on the apices of the abdominal segments.The males also have a two-pronged peg on the final segment of the abdomen and this may be used in the same way as that on the males of C. campanularum. However, I have only ever found males curled up around the base of the stamens of buttercups during poor weather, apparently relying on the closure of the petals to shelter them.

Keys and general biology are found in Sladen (1912), Free & Butler (1959), Alford (1975) and Prŷs-Jones & Corbet (1991). Until recently this species was known as Psithyrus barbutellus, but Psithyrus has now been reduced to a sub-genus within Bombus. It bears a close resemblance to its host, Bombus hortorum, but has an almost circular face, most unlike the very elongated one of B. hortorum.

This species has also been known as S. ruficrus (Erichson) and S. rufiventris (Panzer), but both were misidentifications.

Both sexes can be identified by their yellow-marked faces and shrill hum. The male has pale green eyes in life, though this is a purely ephemeral character, the eyes becoming brownish-black after death.

Keys and general biology are found in Sladen (1912), Free & Butler (1959), Alford (1975) and Prŷs-Jones & Corbet (1991). A rather small yellow, black and white-banded bumblebee which can be rather difficult to distinguish from the very common Bombus lucorum. Although much is made in the literature of a centrally broken yellow band on the second segment of the abdomen, this is probably the worst field character to distinguish this species, being hard to discern with the naked eye. Even then one must be sure that the break is due to… Read more

An unusual Anthophora species, which excavates its nest burrows in rotten wood, rather than in the soil. Unusually for Anthophora the mandible is tridentate, with both an inner and outer subapical tooth.