Bombus sylvestris (Lepeletier, 1832)

Ornosa, Concepción, Torres, Félix & Rúa, Pilar De La, 2017, Updated list of bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from the Spanish Pyrenees with notes on their decline and conservation status, Zootaxa 4237 (1), pp. 41-77 : 56-57

Bombus sylvestris (Lepeletier, 1832)

Eurosiberian species, social parasite of B. pratorum . It is not considered to be threatened at a continental scale: Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of European Bees (Rasmont et al. 2015).

The species is distributed in the Iberian fauna through the Cantabrian Range, Sierra de los Ancares, Sierra de Ayllón, the Iberian System, Sierra de Cazorla and the Pyrenees, between 500 and 2000 m of altitude ( Ornosa & Ortiz-Sánchez 2004). A total of 34 individuals were recorded in the past in the Pyrenees ( Ornosa 1984, Ornosa & Gayubo 1989, Castro 1989, 1996).

At present it has been collected in the Pyrenees between 1300 and 2035 m ( Fig. 7 ), in a beech forest grassland, foraging in Buglossoides arvensis (L.) I. M. Johns., Lathyrus pratensis L. and Lotus corniculatus L., on a forest of Pinus uncinata , on Rhododendron ferrugineum L. and in a mixed oak and pine wood, with patches of subalpine scrub, on Echium vulgare L.

The Pyrenaean population of B. sylvestris , according our current data, is declining, and it shows an orophilous tendency ( Table 2 ). It was assessed as Near Threatened in the Red Book of Andalusian Invertebrates (Ornosa & Ortiz-Sánchez 2008).

New records. Spain: Huesca: Ordesa, pradera, 4- VII-2006, 1 male, C. Ornosa leg., UCME . Ordesa , Circo de Soaso, 8- VIII-2014, 1 male, P. Acosta leg., UMU; Lleida: San Nicolás chapel-Estany Llebrera, 9 - VII-2014, 1 queen, F. Torres leg., UCME; Estany Llong , 9- VII-2014, 1 queen, C. Ornosa leg., UCME ; Grasslands between Estany Ratera and Estany Sant Maurici, 8- VII-2014, 3 queens, C. Ornosa leg., UCME ; La Bonaigua pass, 27- VII- 2006, 1 male, C. Ornosa leg., UCME .

Figures

FIGURE 7. Distribution (in meters) range of the bumblebee species and subspecies observed in contemporary samplings (grey rectangles) in the Pyrenees compared with the known altitude distribution (black bars) from historical data.