Bombus lapidarius is very widespread throughout mid-Europe. It is one of the commonest species after B. pascuorum and B. pratorum and before B. hortorum and B. terrestris.
Northwards, it extends up to the Arctic Circle in Finland, but is uncommon beyond the latitude of Stockholm. Southwards, it is a common plain species down to the 45th parallel. More south, it becomes a mountain ad even alpine species. The most southern observation is in Morocco (ssp. atlanticus), in the alpine stage of Jbel Siroua (orig. data), between the High-Atlas and the Anti-Atlas.
It is found in the west, in the Cordillera Cantabrica (ssp. decipiens) and in Ireland, but is absent from most of Scotland. In the east, it lives in the plains of Russia, up to the 60th parallel and, according to Panfilov (1981), it reaches Orenburg, south of the Ural Mts. The same author reports a single location in Siberia, N.-W. of Novosibirsk.
South-east, B. lapidarius is present in the Caucasus (ssp. eriophorus), in N. Anatolia and in the mountains of Georgia and Armenia (ssp. caucasicus). It has not been reported from Iran.
Throughout the plains of mid-Europe, the species is represented by its nominal lapidarius ssp., black with a red-tipped abdomen. The same holds for the Balkan and W. Anatolia mountains.
Most of the populations from the southern mountains belong to subspecies with light-coloured stripes : atlanticus Benoist in the Atlas Mts., decipiens Pérez in the Iberian and Italian peninsulas, caucasicus Radoszkowski in N. E. Anatolia and Transcaucasia and eriophorus Klug in the Caucasus. Whereas the lapidarius subspecies is common in most of its range, the southern, more or less montane light-striped subspecies are uncommon taxa.
P. Rasmont