The flight period is from April to September in the Netherlands, with the females emerging first and the males from late June. The species flies from May to October in Spain.
Nomenclature: Løken (1984) interpreted B. saltuum (Panzer, 1801) as conspecific with B. barbutellus. Consequently, B. saltuum would appear to be the oldest available name for this species. However, Løken made no further comment on this and used the name Psithyrus barbutellus (= B. barbutellus), possibly because she remained unsure of the identity of B. saltuum. In contrast, Warncke (1986) interpreted B. saltuum as conspecific with B. subterraneus. See the comments on B. subterraneus.