Présence de Bombus argillaceus Scopoli 1763 (Apoidae - Apidae - Bombini) dans les Hautes-Alpes en France

Presence of Bombus argillaceus Scopoli 1763 (Apoidae - Apidae - Bombini) in the Hautes-Alpes in France. - As Bombus species are difficult to identify to the species level to the naked eyes, I chose to focus my observations on the queens of Bombus argillaceus among the French species. This is a remarkable species able to feed on various plants species (polylectic) and easily recognisable even on pictures. This species reaches its western limit in alpine valleys of France where its presence and distribution are not very well known. The results of our field prospections, mostly conducted during the 2013 and 2014 seasons, show that this species is well established in all the High-Alps valleys, as well as in the Ubaye Valley (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) – up to about 1700 meters. To this day, we don’t have any data in the areas of Serre, Devoluy, Queyras and Briançon, probably due to the low sampling effort in these regions.