Bombus anacolus, Zhang, 1994, species inquirenda

Dehon, Manuel, Engel, Michael S., Gerard, Maxence, Aytekin, A. Murat, Ghisbain, Guillaume, Williams, Paul H., Rasmont, Pierre & Michez, Denis, 2019, Morphometric analysis of fossil bumble bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Bombini) reveals their taxonomic affinities, ZooKeys 891, pp. 71-118 : 71

" Bombus " anacolus Zhang, 1994, species inquirenda

Holotype.

Female. Plate XXXIII-2, figs 165, 166, 167 in Zhang et al. (1994). We were not able study the holotype (see comment under B. luianus , vide supra).

Type strata and locality.

Middle Miocence (i.e., 17.0-15.2 Ma), deposit of the Shanwang Formation, large lacustrine and lithified deposit, with diatomaceous and tuffaceous mudstone. Located in Linqu County, Shanwang Province, China.

Description.

Taken from Zhang et al. (1994): Forewing blackish brown, opaque; forewing and hind wing papillate distally; forewing length approximately 15.0 mm, maximum width approximately 6.00 mm as preserved; basal vein relatively straight and basad cu-a; cu-a almost straight; marginal cell length almost 5.0 mm, width 1.1 mm; 1st abscissa of Rs almost straight; 2nd abscissa of Rs slightly curved near midpoint; r-rs straight; Rs+M straight and longer than r-rs; 3Rs straight and smaller than r-rs; 4Rs straight and approximately as long as Rs+M; three submarginal cells, second smallest; 1rs-m straight; 2rs-m curved apically in its posterior half; 1m-cu relatively straight, reaching M near midpoint between 2nd abscissa of Rs and 1rs-m; 2m-cu curved apically, reaching M basad to 2rs-m; total body length approximately 13.0 mm as preserved (large part of metasoma missing). See Zhang et al. (1994) for original description.

Comments.

The specimen was described as B. anacolus by Zhang et al. (1994), and considered to be close to B. luianus , a species collected from the same deposit. Based on geometric morphometric analyses this species is similar to Mendacibombus , and it could be a relative of this subgenus. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that Mendacibombus is estimated to have originated around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary (i.e., 34 Ma) in the Old World ( Hines 2008), while the fossil was discovered in the Middle Lower Miocene (i.e., 17.0-15.2 Ma) deposit of Shandong in China ( Zhang 1990; Zhang et al. 1994). Moreover, the crown age of extant members of Mendacibombus apparently diversified during the Late Miocene (i.e., 8 Ma). As observed for B. luianus and B. dilectus , results based on geometric morphometric analyses for this species could be wrong since it was based on Zhang’s drawings. Given this, we consider the fossil as species inquirenda.