Bombus (Alpigenobombus) mastrucatus Gerstaecker 1869, stat. rev.
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 mastrucatus

description: 2. Bombus (Alpigenobombus) mastrucatus Gerstaecker, 1869 stat. rev.
Figs 1, 26‒34, 107
Bombus mastrucatus Gerstaecker, 1869: 326.
Bombus brevigena Thomson, 1870: 255.
Bombus mastrucatus var. [subsp.] flavicante Pérez, 1890b: 475.
Bombus lefebvrei [subsp.] pyenaicus Vogt, 1909: 50.
Bombus mastrucatus var. [subsp.] collaris Friese, 1909: 673 (not of Scopoli 1763: 306 = B. pratorum (Linnaeus)).
Bombus mastrucatus var. [subsp.] transitorius Friese, 1909: 673.
Bombus mastrucatus var. [subsp.] lutescens Friese, 1909: 673 (not of Pérez 1890a: 154 = B. flavidus Eversmann).
Bombus mastrucatus var. [subsp.] luteus Friese, 1909: 673.
Bombus mastrucatus var. [subsp.] tirolensis Friese, 1911b: 684, replacement name for B. mastrucatus [subsp.] collaris Friese, 1909.
Alpigenobombus wurfleini [subsp.] apfelbecki Reing in Reinig & Rasmont, 1988: 48.
Alpigenobombus wurfleini [subsp.] knechteli Reing in Reinig & Rasmont, 1988: 49.
Bombus mastrucatus morpha [not subsp.] kriechbaumeri ‒ Pittioni 1938: 66, infrasubspecific.
Bombus (Alpigenobombus) wurflenii [subsp.] balcaniensis ‒ Rasmont et al. 2021: 155, unjustified replacement name. Note 1.
NOTE 1. The earlier name B. helferanus f.[orma] apfelbecki Pittioni, 1939: 87 (= B. humilis Illiger) was given infrasubspecific status (Pittioni 1939: 51), so that the name apfelbecki Reinig, 1988 remains available and a replacement name is unjustified.
Species-taxon concept and variation
The taxon concept of the species B. mastrucatus is revised here from the widely-cited interpretation (since Tkalců 1969), to distinguish B. mastrucatus from the separate taxon concept of the species B. wurflenii (see the comments above on B. wurflenii), 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 the keys).
Bombus mastrucatus is a widespread European species that had long been well-known by the use of this name by many authors (e.g., von Dalla Torre 1896; Friese & von Wagner 1912; Skorikov 1923; Reinig 1935; Pittioni 1937; aside from occasional confusion with B. lefebvrei Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, [1835] (= B. pomorum (Panzer, 1805)) by Strand 1901).
Then Tkalců (1969) reduced the taxon mastrucatus to the status of a subspecies within Alpigenobombus wurfleini [sic], although without a detailed justification. Subsequently, the name B. wurflenii (in various spellings) has been used in most publications for this bumblebee species in Europe (e.g., in influential keys by Løken 1973; Hagen & Aichhorn 2003; Ornosa & Ortiz-Sanchez 2004; Rasmont et al. 2021). Nonetheless, the name mastrucatus remains familiar to European bee workers from these same publications, even if only as what has often been interpreted as a subspecies.
The PTP and morphological results (Fig. 12, keys) both support the interpretation that B. mastrucatus and B. wurflenii are separate species. The available COI-barcode-like sequences may all be low-divergence neonumts (Fig. 11). The PTP and morphological analysis results (Fig. 12, keys) also support the interpretation that the divergent colour patterns of the taxa mastrucatus s. str. (Alps: Figs 28–29, 32–33) and flavicante (Pyrenees: Figs 26–27, 31–32), as well as the disjunct population of the taxon brevigena (Scandinavia: Figs 30, 33–34) are conspecific (no fresh samples were available from eastern Europe for sequencing). No diagnostic characters published for the other named taxa for this group in Europe provide any reason to consider them as candidates for separate species.
Variation in the colour-pattern diagrams of B. mastrucatus in Figs 26‒34 is arranged approximately from south-west (Pyrenees) to north-east (Norway). Bombus mastrucatus, with its unbanded red-tailed colour pattern in northern Europe and its yellow-banded red-tailed colour pattern especially in south-western Europe, appears to mimic the local colour patterns of the abundant B. (Melanobombus) lapidarius (Linnaeus, 1758) and similar species (Williams 2007: fig. 5e, j).
Type material
Bombus mastrucatus Gerstaecker, 1869: 326. Type not seen (not found by Tkalců 1969: 892), 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 in the outer half less dense than posterior to it (cf. B. wurflenii); hair of the thoracic dorsum either entirely black or sometimes with bands anteriorly and posteriorly yellow.
Male
Wings nearly clear with veins dark brown, hair long, oculo-malar area shorter than broad; genitalia (Fig. 107) 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 weakly pointed (cf. B. wurflenii); hair of the thoracic dorsum between the wing bases predominantly black, usually with few or no yellow hairs.
Material sequenced in Fig. 12
AUSTRIA • 2 ♀♀ (queens); Carinthia, Innere Eben; 46.978° N, 12.759° E; 26 Jul. 2019; W. Wallner leg.; BOLD seq: ABOL19-1511 ABOL19-1512; HNS: AG#164, AG#165 • 1 ♀ (worker); Tyrol, Hohe Tauern; 47.023° N, 12.238° E; 20 Jul. 2020; S. Schoder leg.; BOLD seq:ABOLHT20-S038; SS:AG#166.
FRANCE • 1 ♀ (queen); Roussillon, Prats de Mollo; [42.400° N, 2.483° E]; 25 Aug. 1993; GenBank seq: AY181174; AG#066 • 1 ♀ (queen); Alpes Maritimes, Col Turini; 43.999° N, 7.429° E; 11 Jul. 2010; C. Schmid-Egger leg.; BOLD seq: BCZSMHYM07560; SNSB: AG#169 • 1 ♀ (queen); Alpes Maritimes, Trende; 44.105° N, 7.448° E; 9 Jul. 2010; C. Schmid-Egger leg.; BOLD seq: BCZSMHYM07561; SNSB: AG#170.
NORWAY • 1 ♀ (queen); Buskerud, Mörkedalen; [60.9° N, 8.3° E]; 2 Jul. 1994; GenBank seq: AY181175; AG#067.
Additional sequences in Fig. 10 and haplotype duplicates
FRANCE • 1 ♀ (queen); Alpes Maritimes, Col Turini; 43.999° N, 7.429° E; 11 Jul. 2010; C. Schmid-Egger leg.; BOLD seq: BCZSMHYM07559; SNSB: AG#168.
GERMANY • 1 ♀ (worker); Saxony, Carlsfeld; 50.435° N, 12.585° E; 16 Jul. 2004; F. Burger leg.; BOLD seq: BCZSMHYM08976; SNSB: AG#171 • 1 ♁; Thuringia, Orlamünde; 50.775° N, 11.541° E; 19 Sep. 2001; F. Burger leg.; BOLD seq: BCZSMHYM08978; SNSB: AG#172 • 1 ♁; Saxony, Carlsfeld; 50.435° N, 12.585° E; 16 Jul. 2004; F. Burger leg.; BOLD seq: BCZSMHYM08979; SNSB: AG#173.
Global distribution
Europe: Spain, France, Belgium, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Norway, Sweden, Russia (Murmansk): HNS, NHMUK, PW, RMNH, SNSB, SS, ZMHB.
This species is recorded at elevations of 1740–2740 in the Eyne Pyrenees (Iserbyt et al. 2008), at 1000‒2450 m in Languedoc-Roussillon, France (Rasmont 1988), and at 1500‒2600 m in the Alps (Pittioni 1937; Neumayer 1998; Neumayer & Paulus 1999). It has been associated in general with the mountain-forest zone (Løken 1973; Rasmont et al. 2021).
Behaviour
Male eye not obviously enlarged relative to female eye: males show ‘patrolling’ behaviour when searching for mates in Austria (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 31-33, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.892.2283, http://zenodo.org/record/8382675