Bombus incertus Morawitz 1881
Creators: name: Williams, Paul H.
name: Altanchimeg, Dorjsuren
name: Byvaltsev, Alexandr
name: Jonghe, Roland De
name: Jaffar, Saleem
name: Japoshvili, George
name: Kahono, Sih
name: Liang, Huan
name: Mei, Maurizio
name: Monfared, Alireza
name: Nidup, Tshering
name: Raina, Rifat
name: Ren, Zongxin
name: Thanoosing, Chawatat
name: Zhao, Yanhui
name: Orr, Michael C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Apidae
Bombus
Bombus incertus

description: Bombus incertus Morawitz, 1881
Figs 15, 123–124, 195
Bombus incertus Morawitz, 1881: 229.
Bombus insertus – Esmaili & Rastegar 1974: 25, incorrect subsequent spelling.
Bombus erzurumensis – 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) 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): 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) 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.
IRAN • 1 ♀ (worker); Tehran, Kamarbon; 36.2162° N, 52.2928° E; 14 Aug. 2010; P. Abdoli leg.; NHMUK seq: IRANPW015; PW: ML11 • 1 ♀ (worker); Tehran, Kamarbon; 36.2161° N, 52.2928° E; 14 Aug. 2010; P. Abdoli leg.; NHMUK: IRANPW016; PW: ML12 • 1 ♀ (worker); Kasra; 38.3444° N, 47.6711° E; 6 Aug. 2009; A. Monfared leg.; NHMUK seq: IRANPW003; PW: ML13 • 1 ♀ (worker); Shahkuh, Gorgan; 37.3698° N, 55.9065° E; 25 Sep. 2012; E. Spo leg.; NHMUK seq: NHMRC1; PW: ML14 • 1 ♀ (queen); Mazandaran, Ileka; 36.2077° N, 51.4088° E; 9 May 2006; A. Taghavi leg.; BOLD seq: 1555C05; PW: ML236 • 1 ♀ (queen); Ardabil, Shabil; 38.2809° N, 47.7182° E; 26 May 2006; A. Monfared leg.; BOLD seq: 1555C06; PW: ML237 • 1 ♀ (worker); Meshkinshahr, Walazir; 38.3151° N, 47.7595° E; 4 Aug. 2005; A. Monfared leg.; BOLD seq: 1555C07; PW: ML238.
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.
description: Published as part of 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), pp. 1-120 in European Journal of Taxonomy 719 on pages 74-75, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.719.1107, http://zenodo.org/record/4064324