The flight period is from late April to September. The new generation of queens and the males are produced in early August. (Westrich, 1989).
Taxonomic status: Until recently, the white-banded form of B. sichelii has been known from west of the Caspian Sea only from the Caucasus (Reinig, 1935). Now that B. erzurumensis (morphologically closely similar to B. sichelii and with white bands) has been described from Turkey, it could be interpreted as another white-banded western colour form. By analogy (see the comments on B. melanopygus) the difference in colour could be the effect of a single allele for pigment.
Until more evidence to the contrary is available from critical studies of patterns of variation, I shall continue to treat them as parts of a single variable species.