Catalogue of Bombus sylvarum (Linnaeus, 1761) (Hymenoptera, Apidae) deposited in the State Museum of Natural History NASU, Lviv, Ukraine

Bombus sylvarum (Linnaeus, 1761) belongs to the subgenus Thoracobombus and is one of the 40 bumblebee species that occur in Ukraine. It is widely distributed in the West-Palaearctic region and may be quite common. In Europe B. sylvarum (L.) can be found from central Spain, Sicily, southern Italy, Greece and Turkey in the south (where it is restricted to the mountains), to the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia in the north. To the west it reaches Ireland and northern Portugal, and to the east it reaches Mongolia. The species is absent from all Mediterranean islands except from Sicily. It expanded recently in Sweden, with a progression of 5° latitude northwards, now nearly reaching the Arctic Circle. At the same time, it has become rare in most lowland locations of western and central Europe. Despite this regional regression, the species is not considered to be threatened at a continental scale: Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of European Bees. Its modeled distribution fits moderately to its actual one. (Rasmont, Iserbyt, 2010-2012; Rasmont et al., 2015). All scenarios project a moderate reduction of suitable areas in the south and some extension to the north depending on its dispersal ability. As B. sylvarum (L.) seems to have a quite good dispersal ability, it would not be threatened much by global warming, even if its already precarious situation in the lowlands would become worse (Rasmont et al., 2015). B. sylvarum (L.) is small to medium-sized bumblebee with a medium-length tongue. The species coat colour shows two different forms in Europe, one of which (the form sylvarum) occurs in Ukraine: two large yellowish bands on the thorax, wide yellowish band on abdomen with black band behind it, and a reddish tail intermixed with yellowish narrow bands. It is distributed locally throughout the Ukrainian territory its populations are small everywhere. B. sylvarum (L.) prefers dry habitats, and its abundance in the forest-steppe zone is higher than in the forest zone. It also occurs in steppes, excluding arid regions. In the Ukrainian Carpathians this species does not rise above the upper forest edge (1400-1500 m a.s.l.) (Konovalova, 2010). Phenological rhythms of colonies’ development in regional populations of B. sylvarum (L.) are slightly different in lowland and mountain habitats. In lowlands they start at the end of April and last to the end of July, and in mountains they are shorter, from the end of May to the end of July. Everywhere in Ukraine B. sylvarum prefers the following habitats for nesting and feeding: dry meadows, water meadows, forest edges, steppe, steppe-meadows, forest clearings. A feeding diet of the species includes at least 60 plant species belonging to 15 families. The flowers with long corollas (the plants of Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, Boraginaceae) make up more than half of its feeding diet (unpublished data of the author). In the entomological collection of the SMNH, 98 specimens of B. sylvarum (L.) have been deposited, 40 spec. of which belong to the historical collection, which was made within the end of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century. Those were collected in following localities: Ukraine: Lvivska, Ternopilska, Ivano-Frankivska provinces and Poland. Recent collection (58 spec.) has been made between 1998 and 2008. The specimens were collected in following localities: Lvivska, Ternopilska, Volynska, Ivano-Frankivska, Chernivetska, Zakarpatska, Mykolaivska,Chernihivska provinces and Crimea AR. Many specimens have been collected in protected areas as follows: Nature Reserves: Roztochchia, Medobory, Yelanetskyi Step, Yaltynskyi hirsko-lisovyi; National Nature Parks: Pivnichne Podillia, Shatskyi, Prypiat-Stokhid, Halytskyi; ZAK: Koshiv, Holytskyi, Orikhivskyi. The bumblebee specimens were collected by the following collectors: Konovalova I., Rizun V., Yanytskyi T., Shrubovych Yu., Martynov V. All samples are included in the electronic database Data Centre “Biodiversity of Ukraine” .