Bombus incertus Morawitz, 1881

Williams, Paul H., Altanchimeg, Dorjsuren, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Roland De, Jaffar, Saleem, Japoshvili, George, Kahono, Sih, Liang, Huan, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Nidup, Tshering, Raina, Rifat, Ren, Zongxin, Thanoosing, Chawatat, Zhao, Yanhui & Orr, Michael C., 2020, Widespread polytypic species or complexes of local species? Revising bumblebees of the subgenus Melanobombus world-wide (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Bombus), European Journal of Taxonomy 719, pp. 1-120 : 74-75

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5852/ejt.2020.719.1107

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A4500016-C219-4353-B81C-5E0BB520547F

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14372068

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/252087CA-1F0B-9573-FDD5-FCDCDEE9F9E3

treatment provided by

Valdenar

scientific name

Bombus incertus Morawitz, 1881
status

 

Bombus incertus Morawitz, 1881 View in CoL

Figs 15 View Figs 14‒16 , 123–124 View Figs 103–138 , 195 View Figs 190‒198

Bombus incertus Morawitz, 1881: 229 View in CoL .

Bombus insertus – Esmaili & Rastegar 1974: 25, incorrect subsequent spelling.

Bombus erzurumensis View in CoL – Lecocq et al. 2015: supplementary table s1 (non Özbek, 1990: 209).

Vogt (1909: 49) initially considered the taxon incertus to be part (a ‘Form’) of the species B. lapidarius s. lat. although subsequently ( Vogt 1909: 52, 1911: 68) he regarded B. incertus as a species separate from B. lapidarius s. lat. Reinig (1935) also considered B. incertus to be a separate species.

Our PTP analysis ( Fig. 10 View Fig ) of coalescents in the COI gene supports three coalescents for candidate species within the sichelii- group as identified in the four gene species tree ( Figs 21–22 View Fig View Fig ): a west Asian B. incertus , which is strongly supported, and a widespread Eurasian B. sichelii s. lat., which is more weakly supported, and the Himalayan B. semenovianus . This is corroborated by differences in morphology that support the three as separate species (see the Diagnosis). The colour pattern of B. incertus appears to be particularly invariant.

Diagnosis

Females

Queens medium-sized body length 18–21 mm, workers 10–15 mm. Can be distinguished in West Asia by their combination of the hair of the face black, the hair of T2 posteriorly entirely bright white, the hindleg corbicular fringes predominantly black, and the red of T4–5 being a deep almost purplered rather than orange-red (cf. B. lapidarius , B. eriophorus , B. sichelii , B. alagesianus ). Queens of B. incertus are also larger than similarly coloured queens of B. sichelii from Iran and eastern Turkey, and can be distinguished by the complete absence of black hairs from T2 posteriorly and by the hindleg corbicular fringes without extensively orange hairs.

Males

Body length 12–15 mm. Can be distinguished in West Asia by their combination of the black band between the wing bases narrower than the anterior white band, the scutellum anterior margin with a few black hairs, T2 posteriorly entirely bright white, and the red of T4–7 being a deep almost purple-red rather than orange-red. Genitalia ( Fig. 195 View Figs 190‒198 ) with the gonostylus as long as broad, reduced as a rounded flat scale with the inner basal process reduced to a tooth (cf. rufipes- group, festivus- group, rufofasciatus - group); volsella with the inner distal corner broadly produced but without a narrow hook (cf. rufipesgroup, festivus- group, rufofasciatus -group); eye unenlarged relative to female eye.

Material examined

Holotype

? RUSSIA • ♀ (queen), holotype of Bombus incertus Morawitz, 1881 by monotypy; “Caucasien”; F. Morawitz leg.; not found (searched both ZIN and ZMUM), but identity as a species widespread in Turkey not in doubt.

Material sequenced (8 specimens)

TURKEY • 1 ♀ (queen); Lake Van; 38.4842° N, 42.2978° E; 18 Jun. 1988; K. Guichard leg.; BOLD seq: 1555C08; NHMUK: ML239 About NHMUK GoogleMaps .

IRAN • 1 ♀ (worker); Tehran, Kamarbon ; 36.2162° N, 52.2928° E; 14 Aug. 2010; P. Abdoli leg.; NHMUK seq: IRANPW015; PW: ML11 GoogleMaps 1 ♀ (worker); Tehran, Kamarbon ; 36.2161° N, 52.2928° E; 14 Aug. 2010; P. Abdoli leg.; NHMUK: IRANPW016 About NHMUK ; PW: ML12 GoogleMaps 1 ♀ (worker); Kasra ; 38.3444° N, 47.6711° E; 6 Aug. 2009; A. Monfared leg.; NHMUK seq: IRANPW003; PW: ML13 GoogleMaps 1 ♀ (worker); Shahkuh, Gorgan ; 37.3698° N, 55.9065° E; 25 Sep. 2012; E. Spo leg.; NHMUK seq: NHMRC1; PW: ML14 GoogleMaps 1 ♀ (queen); Mazandaran, Ileka ; 36.2077° N, 51.4088° E; 9 May 2006; A. Taghavi leg.; BOLD seq: 1555C05; PW: ML236 GoogleMaps 1 ♀ (queen); Ardabil, Shabil ; 38.2809° N, 47.7182° E; 26 May 2006; A. Monfared leg.; BOLD seq: 1555C06; PW: ML237 GoogleMaps 1 ♀ (worker); Meshkinshahr, Walazir ; 38.3151° N, 47.7595° E; 4 Aug. 2005; A. Monfared leg.; BOLD seq: 1555C07; PW: ML238 GoogleMaps .

Global distribution

(West Asian mountain species) West Asia: TURKEY, IRAN. (NHMUK, PW, YUY.) Contrary to some recent claims (S.-F. Wang 1985; S.-F. Wang & Yao 1996; Niu et al. 2018), this species does not occur in China. Examination of specimens in the IOZ collection labelled B. incertus shows these to be mostly misidentified B. separandus with a few B. keriensis from Xinjiang (examined PW). Bombus incertus is locally common.

Behaviour

Food-plant generalists ( Rasmont & Flagothier 1996). The male mate-searching behaviour is expected to resemble the patrolling of B. lapidarius .

ZIN

Russian Academy of Sciences, Zoological Institute, Zoological Museum

ZMUM

Zoological Museum, University of Amoy

NHMUK

Natural History Museum, London

PW

Paleontological Collections

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Apidae

Genus

Bombus

SubGenus

Melanobombus

Loc

Bombus incertus Morawitz, 1881

Williams, Paul H., Altanchimeg, Dorjsuren, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Roland De, Jaffar, Saleem, Japoshvili, George, Kahono, Sih, Liang, Huan, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Nidup, Tshering, Raina, Rifat, Ren, Zongxin, Thanoosing, Chawatat, Zhao, Yanhui & Orr, Michael C. 2020
2020
Loc

Bombus erzurumensis

Ozbek H. 1990: 209
1990
Loc

Bombus insertus

Esmaili M. & Rastegar R. 1974: 25
1974
Loc

Bombus incertus

Morawitz F. F. 1881: 229
1881
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