Not just cryptic, but a barcode bush: PTP re-analysis of global data for the bumblebee subgenus Bombus s. str. supports additional species (Apidae, genus Bombus)

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The subgenus Bombus s. str. (of the genus Bombus Latreille) includes the bumblebee species of greatest commercial importance for pollination world-wide as well as some of the bumblebee species of greatest conservation concern. Species in this group have always proved especially difficult to recognise because they are weakly differentiated, not only in morphology, but also in their evenly branching ‘bushy’ patterns within the fast-evolving COI gene tree. A previous analysis of this tree was unusual in finding no significant Yule-coalescent difference between slow interspecies branching and fast intra-species branching and consequently used an approximation to recognise 17 species. The same global sample of 559 COI-barcodes is re-assessed here for evidence of species’ coalescents using Poisson-tree-process (PTP) models applied to the longest unique haplotypes. Results from this PTP re-analysis agree for 12 of the species but split five of the previous ‘species’ with improved support, so that either 22 or 23 species are recognised depending on the choice of outgroup. PTP adds support for: B. czserkianus Vogt stat. nov.; B. ganjsuensis Skorikov stat. rev.; B. mckayi Ashmead stat. rev.; B. minshanicola Bischoff stat. rev.; B. reinigi Tkalcu stat. rev.; and possibly B. xanthopus Kriechbaumer stat. rev. These results provide a more reliable and robust basis for faunal and conservation studies.

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Shelf Note: Electronic - Zoology: INVERTEBRATE

To cite this article:

Paul H. Williams (2021) Not just cryptic, but a barcode bush: PTP re-analysis of global data for the bumblebee subgenus Bombus s. str. supports additional species (Apidae, genus Bombus), Journal of Natural History, 55:5-6, 271-282, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2021.1900444