Lapidariobombus (Melanobombus) tanguticus, Morawitz, 1887

Williams, Paul H., 2018, In a group of its own? Rediscovery of one of the world’s rarest and highest mountain bumblebees, Bombus tanguticus, Journal of Natural History 52 (5 - 6), pp. 305-321 : 308-309

Bombus (Melanobombus) tanguticus Morawitz, 1887

( Figures 1 ‒ 3 )

Bombus tanguticus Morawitz, 1887:200 , type-locality citation ‘Bassin des gelben Flusses’ (Qinghai, China). Lectotype queen by present designation ZISP, examined; von Dalla Torre 1896:553; Wu 1941:284; Williams, Ito, Matsumura and Kudo 2010:118; not of Wang 1982:445 (misidentification). Note 1.

< Lapidariobombus > tanguticus (Morawitz) ; Skorikov 1923:153.

Bombus <( Lapidariobombus )> tanguticus Morawitz ; Richards, 1930:640; Reinig 1935:332.

[Lapidariob.<ombus> tangut.<icus> himalayanus Skorikov 1933:244 , published without description, unavailable name; not of Skorikov 1914:127 (= B. (Mendacibombus) himalayanus (Skorikov)) ] Note 2.

Bombus <( Tanguticobombus )> tanguticus Morawitz ; Pittioni 1939:201; Panfilov 1957:236; Williams 1985:246.

Bombus (Melanobombus) tanguticus Morawitz ; Richards 1968:236; Williams 1991:100; Williams 1998:132; Williams, Bystriakova, Huang, Miao and An 2015:170.

Note 1 ( tanguticus ). Morawitz’ s original description of Bombus tanguticus gives a broad range of female body lengths (‘22 ‒ 25 mm’) implying that there was more than one original syntype female. The ZISP collection contains a queen that agrees with the original description and carries the labels: (1) (handwritten) ‘Bassin des/gelb. Flusses/ 13,500 ʹ.’; (2) (handwritten) ‘Bombus/tanguticus/F. Mor.’; (3) (handwritten) ‘Bombus/tanguticus [female]/F. Morawitz.’; (4) (part handwritten on red) ‘ Lectotypus Bombus/ tanguticus Mor. [female]/design. Podbolotsk.’ (unpublished); (5) (printed on a red label) ‘ LECTOTYPE [female]/ Bombus / tanguticus / Morawitz, 1887 /det. PH Williams 2017 ’. This specimen, which lacks the distal two joints of the right mid tarsus, is regarded as one of Morawitz’ s syntypes and is designated here as the lectotype in order to reduce uncertainty in the identity and application of the name.

Note 2 ( himalayanus ). Skorikov’ s (1933) name himalayanus is unavailable because it was published without a description or indication (reference to a description) and not as a replacement name ( ICZN 1999: Article 13.1). I have examined a female on loan from the ZISP collection that carries the labels: (1) (handwritten in Cyrillic) ‘[Sgav-skl-per Kordong/ Himalaya, v tvis f./A. Jakobson] 2.VIII.12’; (2) (printed in Cyrillic) ‘[K. Skorikov.]’; (3) (handwritten in ballpoint) ‘B. tanguticus/himalayanus/Skorikov’.

Etymology: this species was named after the Tangut people.

Figures

Figure 1. Left lateral aspect of a queen of Bombus tanguticus collected during the 1921 Everest Expedition at an elevation of 18,500 ft (c. 5640 m) asl. The scale bar shows intervals of 1 mm.

Figure 2. Dorsal aspect of workers of Bombus tanguticus collected: from (a) Xiangpishan, Qinghai, c. 3780‒3790 m, 30 August 2010; and from (b) near the Kunlun pass, Qinghai, c. 4610 m, 13 August 2013. The scale bars show intervals of 1 mm.

Figure 3. Map of the entire global distribution of B. tanguticus from specimens examined and confirmed here, combining the record from the 1887 description in the north-east (star), with eight twentieth-century records mainly from the Himalayan region (spots), with two twenty-first-century records from recent surveys in the north-east (squares). Black symbols: yellow-banded individuals; white symbol: white-banded individual. Relief map with hill shading for the region centred on Tibet with (black lines) borders to national administration as in UN maps and (grey lines) a 10° × 10° grid. Image created in ArcGIS using World_Shaded_Relief basemap © 2014 Esri.