Picipes

Bombus picipes Richards
flavus Friese, 1905:517, examined, not of Pérez, 1884:265 (= B. campestris (Panzer))
picipes Richards, 1934:90, examined
klapperichi Pittioni, 1949:266, examined

NOMENCLATURE: With Psithyrus regarded as being a subgenus of the genus Bombus (Williams, 1991 [pdf], 1995 [pdf]), B. pratorum subsp. flavus Friese (1905) becomes a junior secondary homonym in Bombus of Psithyrus campestris var. flavus Pérez (1884) (deemed to be subspecific, see ICZN, 1999: Article 45.6), and therefore B. flavus Friese is invalid (ICZN, 1999: Article 57). For this species, the oldest available name of which I am aware is B. parthenius var. picipes Richards, 1934 (deemed to be subspecific, see ICZN, 1999: Article 45.6), which becomes the valid name, B. picipes. The only publications using the name B. flavus Friese since 1950 of which I am aware are by Sakagami (1972), Ito (1993) and Yao & Luo (1997), so this change of valid name is not a serious disruption of common usage.

DISTRIBUTION: Oriental, Palaearctic Regions.