Queens are active from late May to early September, workers from mid June (exceptionally May) to mid August, and males from the end of June to early September. On a visit to the Western Isles in early July, I only found queens. Dutch records show the queens emerging in late April.
Parasites: Peeters, Raemakers & Smit (1999) cite Bombus barbutellus as a possible social parasite of this species in the Netherlands.
Nomenclature: The name B. elegans has been applied to several taxa by different authors. Tkalcu (1969:901-903) reasoned that Seidl had originally described B. elegans from an individual of the species that has more recently been known by the name B. distinguendus, although Seidl’s original type is lost. According to Tkalců, a specimen of B. mesomelas may then have been substituted as the type, but now this cannot be found either. Any remaining confusion could be resolved by the designation of an appropriate neotype (ICZN, 1999: Article 75). See the comments on B. mesomelas.
Although B. elegans may be the oldest available name for the present interpretation of this species, the name B. distinguendus has been in common use for the species since 1950 (e.g. Tkalcu, 1969, 1974a; Løken, 1973; Alford, 1975; Delmas, 1976; Sakagami, 1976; Pekkarinen, 1979; Reinig, 1981; Pekkarinen et al., 1981; Rasmont, 1983; Pekkarinen & Teräs, 1993; Rasmont et al., 1995). I know of no publications using the name B. elegans for this taxon (only for B. mesomelas Gerstaecker, as a misidentification) since 1950. It is suggested that, in the interests of stability (ICZN, 1999: Article 23) and to prevent confusion with B. mesomelas, prevailing usage be maintained (in prep.).