The range of Bombus niveatus vorticosus is centred around the Aegean Sea. This subspecies is specially common in the Balkan (Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece) and in W. Anatolia. It has also been found in Crete, on Cyprus, and in the mountains of Lebanon and W. Syria. It is much less common in Anatolia, Caucasus and N-Iran where it is mostly replaced by the nominal ssp. niveatus.
Most authors separate B. vorticosus from B. niveatus as good species. Nevertheless, Rasmont et al. (2005) shown that they are conspecific. While the yellowish ssp. vorticosus s.s. occurs on both sides of the Aegean, the ssp. niveatus only occurs in near Asia.

The remark of Radoszkowski about its discovery of this species on the Ararat mountain appears as poetry : "Cette espèce doit appartenir aux espèces très anciennes parce que le sommet du Mont Ararat, d'après les traditions, n'a pas été submergé pendant le déluge". [This species should belong to the most ancient ones while the summit of the Ararat mountain, after traditions, has not been submerged during the Flood] O. Radoszkowsky (1890).

P. Rasmont