It has a wide range, from Ireland across temperate Europe to the Ural Mountains, western Siberia, Novosibirsk and the Altai. It is also known from the Tian Shan eastwards across Mongolia to north-eastern China and southwards to Tibet. There is a separate population found from Turkey to northern Iran.

It appears in May and June and is a lively day-flier (unlike most other sphingids), generally active from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.^[2] It frequents marshy woodland and damp moorland, and has a wide distribution across temperate Europe and Western Asia, but is generally quite scarce. The larvae feed on devil's-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) and field scabious (Knautia arvensis).

It is distinguished from H. fuciformis by the narrow band of scaling along the outer wing margin, and the forewing's undivided discal cell. It has a wingspan of 40–50 millimetres (1.6–2.0 in). It is one of two similar species of sphingid moth occurring in Britain that closely mimic a bumblebee.

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  Hemaris tityus ♂
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  Hemaris tityus ♂ △
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  Hemaris tityus ♀
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  Hemaris tityus ♀ △

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  Caterpillar and adult in John Curtis's British Entomology, Volume 5
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  caterpillar, Romania
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  Adult feeding
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  Figs. 4, 4a larvae after last moult

• "69.008 BF1982 Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk-moth Hemaris tityus (Linnaeus, 1758)". UKMoths.
• Description in Richard South: The Moths of the British Isles
• Lepiforum e.V.