Bombus (Alpigenobombus) wurflenii Radoszkowski 1860, s. str.
Creators: name: Williams, Paul H.
name: An, Jiandong
name: Dorji, Phurpa
name: Huang, Jiaxing
name: Jaffar, Saleem
name: Japoshvili, George
name: Narah, Jaya
name: Ren, Zongxin
name: Streinzer, Martin
name: Thanoosing, Chawatat
name: Tian, Li
name: Orr, Michael C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Apidae
Bombus
Bombus wurflenii

description: 1. Bombus (Alpigenobombus) wurflenii Radoszkowski, 1860 s. str.
Figs 19‒25, 106
Bombus WURFLENii [sic] Radoszkowski, 1860: 482.
Bombus alpigenus Morawitz, 1874: 132.
Alpigenobombus wurfleini subsp. uralicus Tkalců, 1969: 891, by indication of Pittioni (1938). Note 1.
Bombus Wurfleini ‒ Radoszkowski 1877: 191, incorrect subsequent spelling.
Bombus Wurfleni ‒ Radoszkowski 1877: 191, incorrect subsequent spelling.
Bombus mastrucatus morpha [not subsp.] uralicus ‒ Pittioni 1938: 66, infrasubspecific.
NOTE 1. Alpigenobombus wurfleini subsp. uralicus Tkalců, 1969: 891, by indication of Pittioni (1938). Lectotype by designation of Tkalců (1969: 893): ♀ (queen) central Ural Mountains (‘Sojmonowsk’), Russia (NHMUK), examined.According to A. Byvaltsev (pers. com.), the type queen of the taxon uralicus was collected on the territory of modern Karabash, in Chelyabinsk Oblast (55.4465° N, 60.2151° E, ca 320 m a.s.l., but with ridges 20 km to the southwest that reach to ca 1100 m a.s.l.). The Soymonovsky goldmine (named after V.Yu. Soymonov, chairman of the Temporary Mining Commission responsible for the development of gold in the Middle Urals) and the small settlement Sak-Elginsky Vyselok were located here. Later copper deposits were discovered in the area and the Soymonovsky copper smelter was founded in 1834. The Sak-Elginsky settlement then began to be called Soymonovsky or simply Soymonovsk [= ‘Sojmonowsk’].
Species-taxon concept and variation
The taxon concept of the species B. wurflenii is revised here from the widely-cited interpretation since Tkalců (1969), to distinguish B. wurflenii from the separate taxon concept for the species B. mastrucatus (see the comments below on B. mastrucatus), based on: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 12); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see below and the keys).
The morphological results (see the keys) support the interpretation that the individuals with the divergent colour patterns of the taxa wurflenii s. str. (Figs 20‒25) and uralicus (lectotype queen Fig. 19) are conspecific, although only a single queen of the taxon uralicus is available. Only two other individuals of the taxon uralicus from the Urals are definitely known at present (A. Byvaltsev pers. com.): a male from 1909 and a female from 1929 (both ZIN).
Variation in the colour-pattern diagrams for B. wurflenii in Figs 19‒25 is arranged approximately from north (Urals) to south (Turkey). Bombus wurflenii, with its white-banded red-tailed female colour pattern in Turkey and the Caucasus, appears to mimic the more abundant B. (Melanobombus) incertus Morawitz, 1881, B. (Ml.) eriophorus Klug, 1807, and similar species (Williams 2007: fig. 5l).
Type material
Bombus WURFLENii Radoszkowski, 1860: 482. Type not seen, but identity not in doubt.
Morphological diagnosis
Female Wings nearly clear with veins dark brown, hair long, oculo-malar area shorter than broad, clypeus adjacent to the labrum not raised in the centre but flat so that the shallow transverse anterior groove is not interrupted, this central area uniformly with many small punctures and not shining, ocello-ocular area with the punctures anteriorly to the unpunctured area at least as dense as posterior to it (cf. B. mastrucatus); hair of the thoracic dorsum black, with bands anteriorly and usually posteriorly grey-white.
Male
Wings nearly clear with veins dark brown, hair long, oculo-malar area shorter than broad; genitalia (Fig. 106) with the gonostylus long and distally near its midline axis convexly rounded, length on its outer side about a quarter as long as on its inner side with the two inner corners of the distal lobe rounded, the margin between them nearly straight, penis-valve head strongly recurved, the recurved hook much longer than broad and distally at the end of the hook broadly rounded (cf. B. mastrucatus); hair of the thoracic dorsum between the wing bases either predominantly pale cream-yellow or with many pale cream-yellow hairs.
Material sequenced in Fig. 12
GEORGIA • 1 ♀ (queen); Lagodekhi; 41.8714° N, 46.3645° E; 22 Jun. 2015; G. Kirkitadze leg.; BOLD seq: 1555A01; IEAUG: AG#065.
Global distribution
Western Asia: Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia (Caucasus, Urals): IEAUG, NHM, PW, ZIN.
This species is recorded at elevations of 1600‒2570 m in Turkey in the montane and subalpine coniferous forest zone (Rasmont & Flagothier 1996) and in the alpine zone in the northern Caucasus (Skorikov 1910).
Behaviour
Male eye not obviously enlarged relative to female eye: males are expected to show ‘patrolling’ behaviour in search of mates (Williams 1991).
description: Published as part of Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Dorji, Phurpa, Huang, Jiaxing, Jaffar, Saleem, Japoshvili, George, Narah, Jaya, Ren, Zongxin, Streinzer, Martin, Thanoosing, Chawatat, Tian, Li & Orr, Michael C., 2023, Bumblebees with big teeth: revising the subgenus Alpigenobombus with the good, the bad and the ugly of numts (Hymenoptera: Apidae), pp. 1-65 in European Journal of Taxonomy 892 (1) on pages 26-31, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.892.2283, http://zenodo.org/record/8382675