[1] This bumblebee is black with a red tail, an oblong head, and a long proboscis.

The male has pale hairs on the collar, scutellum, and first tergite (abdominal segment).

[3] The apple humble-bee is found in western and central Europe and western Turkey, from northern France to the Perm region in Russia, but it is declining and once had a much wider distribution.

[4] It was once present in the United Kingdom and was found once in Kent recently, but it is doubtful it is still established there.

The Turkish subspecies B. p. canus, however, lives on more or less alpine steppes at altitudes between 1,600 and 3,500 m (5,200 and 11,500 ft).