Bombus vestalis (Geoffroy, 1785)

Western Palearctic species, spread in Europe, the north of Turkey and Elburs. In the Iberian Peninsula it includes two subspecies, of which the nominate one used to be locally abundant at the Pyrenean area, until 1700 m (Ornosa 1984, Rasmont 1988, Castro 1993, Ornosa & Ortiz-Sánchez 2004), but it has not been found in recent samplings. It is a social parasite on B. terrestris (sometimes on B. lucorum), clearly much scarcer than its host in the Pyrenees.

The species was assessed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of European Bees (Rasmont et al. 2015).