Journal
INSECTES SOCIAUX
Volume 52, Issue 1, Pages 45-54Publisher
SPRINGER BASEL AG
DOI: 10.1007/s00040-004-0761-1
Keywords
bumblebees; Bombus cryptarum; Bombus magnus; labial gland secretion; mtDNA; cytochrome oxidase 1
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Spring queens of Bombus cryptartim and B. magnus from 2 localities in Brandenburg/Germany and Scotland/ United Kingdom respectively were determined by morphological characteristics. The lateral border of the collare at the border of the pronotallobus or at the epistemum proved to be an especially useful character. Artificial colonies were reared from safely determined spring queens and the cephalic part of the labial glands of males from these colonies were investigated by GC/MS. The investigation identified approximately 50 compounds, as a mixture of straight chain fatty acid derivatives (alcohols, esters and hydrocarbons). The labial secretions of B. cryptarum and B. magnus are significantly different. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (CO1) of two queens from each locality and species were sequenced. Each species from the different localities formed a cluster. Sequence divergence between B. cryptarum and B. magnus was about 30 base substitutions and approximately 0.04 in Tamura-Nei genetic distance. Bombus cryptarum and B. magnus were closer to each other than to B. lucorum and made the sister group in the topology of the tree. Both the CO1 sequences and the labial gland secretions of males of B. cryptarum from Brandenburg and of males from artificial colonies reared from safely determined spring queens from Scotland are identical. B. cryptarum has thus, for the first time, been identified as part of the British bumblebee fauna. The differences of both the labial gland secretions, used as species recognition signals, and the genetic differences established by sequencing CO1 confirm the morphological findings that B. cryptarum and B. magnus are distinct taxa which should be treated as distinct species.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available