Book review: The Bumblebees of the Himalaya – An Identification Guide, by Paul H. Williams

Book review: The Bumblebees of the Himalaya – An Identification Guide, by Paul H. William

Morphometric analysis of fossil bumble bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Bombini) reveals their taxonomic affinities

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Bumble bees (Bombus spp.) are a widespread corbiculate lineage (Apinae: Corbiculata: Bombini), mostly found among temperate and alpine ecosystems. Approximately 260 species have been recognized and grouped recently into a simplified system of 15 subgenera. Most of the species are nest-building and primitively eusocial. Species of Bombus have been more intensely studied than any other lineages of bees with the exception of the honey bees. However, most bumble bee fossils are poorly described and documented, making their placement relative to other Bombus uncertain. A large portion of the known and presumed bumble bee fossils were re-examined in an attempt to better understand their affinities with extant Bombini. The taxonomic affinities of fossil specimens were re-assessed based on morphological features and previous descriptions, and for 13 specimens based on geometric morphometrics of forewing shape. None of the specimens coming from Eocene and Oligocene deposits were assigned within the contemporary shape space of any subgenus of Bombus. It is shown that Calyptapis florissantensis Cockerell, 1906 (Eocene-Oligocene boundary, Florissant shale, Colorado, USA) and Oligobombus cuspidatus Antropov, 2014 (Late Eocene, Bembridge Marls) likely belong to stem-group Bombini. Bombus anacolus Zhang, 1994, B. dilectus Zhang, 1994, B. luianus Zhang, 1990 (Middle Miocene, Shanwang Formation), as well as B. vetustus Rasnitsyn & Michener, 1991 (Miocene, Botchi Formation) are considered as species inquirenda. In the Miocene, affinities of fossils with derived subgenera of Bombus s. l. increased, and some are included in the shape space of contemporary subgenera: Cullumanobombus (i.e., B. pristinus Unger, 1867, B. randeckensis Wappler & Engel, 2012, and B. trophonius Prokop, Dehon, Michez & Engel, 2017), Melanobombus (i.e., B. cerdanyensis Dehon, De Meulemeester & Engel, 2014), and Mendacibombus (i.e., B. beskonakensis (Nel & Petrulevičius, 2003), new combination), agreeing with previous estimates of diversification

Monitoring bee health in European agroecosystems using wing morphology and fat bodies

Current global change substantially threatens pollinators, which directly impacts the pollination services underpinning the stability, structure and functioning of ecosystems. Amongst these threats, many synergistic drivers, such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, increasing use of agrochemicals, decreasing resource diversity, as well as climate change, are known to affect wild and managed bees. Therefore, reliable indicators for pollinator sensitivity to such threats are needed. Biological traits, such as phenotype (e.g. shape, size and asymmetry) and storage reserves (e.g. fat body size), are important pollinator traits linked to reproductive success, immunity, resilience and foraging efficiency and, therefore, could serve as valuable markers of bee health and pollination service potential. This data paper contains an extensive dataset of wing morphology and fat body content for the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) and the buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) sampled at 128 sites across eight European countries in landscape gradients dominated by two major bee-pollinated crops (apple and oilseed rape), before and after focal crop bloom and potential pesticide exposure. The dataset also includes environmental metrics of each sampling site, namely landscape structure and pesticide use. The data offer the opportunity to test whether variation in the phenotype and fat bodies of bees is structured by environmental factors and drivers of global change. Overall, the dataset provides valuable information to identify which environmental threats predominantly contribute to the modification of these traits

Base de datos de abejas ibéricas

Las abejas son un grupo extremadamente diverso con más de 1000 especies descritas en la península ibérica. Además, son excelentes polinizadores y aportan numerosos servicios ecosistémicos fundamentales para la mayoría de ecosistemas terrestres. Debido a los diversos cambios ambientales inducidos por el ser humano, existen evidencias del declive de algunas de sus poblaciones para ciertas especies. Sin embargo, conocemos muy poco del estado de conservación de la mayoría de especies y de muchas de ellas ignoramos cuál es su distribución en la península ibérica. En este trabajo presentamos un esfuerzo colaborativo para crear una base de datos de ocurrencias de abejas que abarca la península ibérica e islas Baleares que permitirá resolver cuestiones como la distribución de las diferentes especies, preferencia de hábitat, fenología o tendencias históricas. En su versión actual, esta base de datos contiene un total de 87 684 registros de 923 especies recolectados entre 1830 y 2022, de los cuales un 87% presentan información georreferenciada. Para cada registro se incluye información relativa a la localidad de muestreo (89%), identificador y colector de la especie (64%), fecha de captura (54%) y planta donde se recolectó (20%). Creemos que esta base de datos es el punto de partida para conocer y conservar mejor la biodiversidad de abejas en la península ibérica e Islas Baleares. Se puede acceder a estos datos a través del siguiente enlace permanente: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6354502ABSTRACT: Bees are a diverse group with more than 1000 species known from the Iberian Peninsula. They have increasingly received special attention due to their important role as pollinators and providers of ecosystem services. In addition, various rapid human-induced environmental changes are leading to the decline of some of its populations. However, we know very little about the conservation status of most species and for many species, we hardly know their true distributions across the Iberian Peninsula. Here, we present a collaborative effort to collate and curate a database of Iberian bee occurrences to answer questions about their distribution, habitat preference, phenology, or historical trends. In total we have accumulated 87 684 records from the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands of 923 different species with 87% of georeferenced records collected between 1830 and 2022. In addition, each record has associated information such as the sampling location (89%), collector and person who identified the species (64%), date of the capture (54%) and plant species where the bees were captured (20%). We believe that this database is the starting point to better understand and conserve bee biodiversity in the Iberian Peninsula. It can be accessed at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6354502Esta base de datos se ha realizado con la ayuda de los proyectos EUCLIPO (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-028360/EUCLIPO) y SAFEGUARD (ref. 101003476 H2020 -SFS-2019-2).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dasypoda morawitzi RADCHENKO 2016 (Apoidea -Melittidae -Dasypodaini), une espèce nouvelle pour la faune de France

International audienceDasypoda morawitzi RADCHENKO 2016, a cryptic Melittidae mistakenly identified as the large-distribution species Dasypoda hirtipes for a long time, is recorded in France for the first time.Dasypoda morawitzi RADCHENKO 2016, Melittidae cryptique longtemps confondue avec l'espèce à large distribution Dasypoda hirtipes, est pour la première fois recensée en France

Redescription of three rare species of Dasypoda bees with first description of D. iberica and D. tibialis females (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Melittidae)

Radchenko, Vladimir G., Ghisbain, Guillaume, Michez, Denis (2019): Redescription of three rare species of Dasypoda bees with first description of D. iberica and D. tibialis females (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Melittidae). Zootaxa 4700 (3): 326-344, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4700.3.

A new bee species of the genus Dasypoda Latreille (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) from Northwest Africa with comparative remarks on the subgenus Microdasypoda Michez

Radchenko, Vladimir G., Ghisbain, Guillaume, Michez, Denis (2022): A new bee species of the genus Dasypoda Latreille (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) from Northwest Africa with comparative remarks on the subgenus Microdasypoda Michez. Zootaxa 5188 (1): 74-86, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5188.1.

Wildlife conservation strategies should incorporate both taxon identity and geographical context - further evidence with bumblebees

Aim: Among the numerous anthropogenic pressures threatening biodiversity, habitat destruction and climate change are pointed to as dominant. In response, a number of mitigation strategies are elaborated to save endangered living organisms. However, the taxonomic level and geographical extent at which conservation strategies should be designed and implemented remain generally unclear. Here, we aim to assess and discuss the importance to apply conservation strategies at an appropriate taxonomic scale. For this purpose, we focus our analyses on bumblebees (genus Bombus), a group of critically important and endangered pollinators. Location: West-Palaearctic. Methods: We use a species distribution modelling approach to investigate and compare climatic and habitat-related variables associated with the distribution of West-Palaearctic bumblebees. Our analyses are based on a data set gathering more than 125,000 unique observation points for 68 species. Results: We highlight species-specific associations with climatic and land cover variables, depicting the strong relevance of taxon-specific mitigation strategies for the conservation of those key pollinators. We also identify that the occurrence probability of localized and widespread species is mostly predicted by specific land cover characteristics and climatic conditions, respectively. Finally, we report the general absence of phylogenetic signal associated with the relative importance of each environmental variable in species distribution models, underlining the difficulty to predict species-specific environmental requirements based on evolutionary relationships. Main conclusions: In the light of these results, we conclude that climate change and landscape destruction are not expected to drive the fate of all bumblebee species in a same direction, even for phylogenetically close lineages. We argue in favour of geographically and taxonomically adapted conservation strategies and discuss the limitations of untargeted action plans for species with different climatic/habitat requirements.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Revisions to the faunas of Andrena of the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco with the descriptions of four new species (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae)

Iberia has one of the richest bee faunas in the world, and the genus Andrena is no exception with around 200 species known from the Peninsula. The fauna of Andrena was largely revised in the 1970s, but since then, it has received little attention. Molecular investigation of the taxonomically challenging subgenus Taeniandrena has revealed that the situation is more complicated than previously thought with several cryptic and overlooked species. From the species allied to Andrena (T. ) gelriae van der Vecht, 1927, Andrena (T. ) gredana Warncke, 1975 stat. nov. from Spain and Portugal is raised to species status, and Andrena (T. ) levante Wood & Praz sp. nov. from southeastern Spain is newly described. Furthermore, Andrena (T. ) benoisti Wood & Praz sp. nov. is described, having previously been referred to as Andrena (T. ) wilkella beaumonti Benoist, 1961. Andrena (T. ) beaumonti stat. rev. is itself distinct and restricted to the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Outside of the subgenus Taeniandrena, Andrena (Euandrena) fortipunctata Wood sp. nov. and Andrena (Charitandrena) hattorfiana nigricauda Wood subsp. nov. are described from Spain, and Andrena (Notandrena) juliana Wood sp. nov. is described from Spain and Portugal. The male of Andrena (Lepidandrena) baetica Wood, 2020 is also described. Andrena (Euandrena) impressa Warncke, 1967 stat. nov. is raised to species status, displaying a West Mediterranean distribution. Finally, a further two species of Andrena are newly recorded for Spain, Andrena laurivora Warncke, 1974 and Andrena confinis Stoeckhert, 1930. Altogether, these findings reinforce the fact that our understanding of the taxonomy and distribution of Andrena in southern Europe remains incomplete

Contribution to the knowledge of the bumblebee fauna of Afghanistan (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Bombus Latreille)

Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: genus Bombus Latreille, 1802) constitute an important group of pollinators for many wild plants and crops in north temperate regions and South America. Although knowledge of these insects has been increasing over the last decades, some geographic areas remain poorly studied and additions to the knowledge of their faunas are infrequent. Afghanistan is one example of a country that is currently underrepresented in the scientific literature despite its high species diversity. For this study, more than 420 new occurrence records were gathered for 17 bumblebee species belonging to all eight subgenera recorded in the country, including the first record of a species closely related to the B longipennis group. Additionally, the first standardized database for Afghan bees is launched, which we hope will be enriched in the future to allow further assessments of population trends for the bumblebees of Afghanistan. Finally, the previously published species records for the country are discussed considering the most recent taxonomic revisions of the genus and key perspectives are highlighted for further work in this understudied country and neighboring regions