identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
FE5D87EC26156D7DDE0EFCAEFBF5F9AC.text	FE5D87EC26156D7DDE0EFCAEFBF5F9AC.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	(Sibiricobombus) Vogt 1911	<div><p>Subgenus Sibiricobombus Vogt, 1911</p><p>Sibiricobombus Vogt, 1911: 60 .</p><p>Obertobombus Reinig, 1930: 110.</p><p>We associate a total of 82 published formal names with species of the subgenus Sibiricobombus (including misspellings and infrasubspecific names). Below is a list of the 11 species recognised from the integrative analysis together with the synonyms that occur most frequently in the literature (identified from morphology) with the changes since the last checklist labelled (Williams 1998).</p><p>The subgenus Obertobombus (Reinig 1930) is included within the subgenus Sibiricobombus (Richards 1968), based on evidence from morphology (Richards 1968; Williams 1991) and from genes (Cameron et al. 2007; Williams et al. 2008, 2022). The species of Obertobombus are recognised here as part of the sibiricus -group of species.</p><p>sibiricus -group</p><p>Bombus sibiricus (Fabricius, 1781)</p><p>= melinoides Fischer de Waldheim, 1843</p><p>= flaviventris Friese, 1905</p><p>= ochrobasis Richards, 1930</p><p>= nikiforuki Tkalců, 1961</p><p>Bombus semenovi Morawitz, 1887 stat. rev.</p><p>= xionglaris Wang, 1982 syn. nov.</p><p>= duanjioaoris Wang, 1982 syn. nov.</p><p>= zhadaensis Wang, 1982 syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus oberti Morawitz, 1883</p><p>= apicatus Friese, 1911 syn. nov.</p><p>= griseofasciatus Reinig, 1930: 108, not of Reinig, 1930: 83</p><p>morawitzi -group</p><p>Bombus morawitzi Radoszkowski, 1876</p><p>= oppositus Smith, 1878</p><p>= hydrophthalmus Morawitz, 1883</p><p>niveatus -group</p><p>Bombus sulfureus Friese, 1905</p><p>= aureocorbicularis Pittioni, 1937</p><p>Bombus niveatus Kriechbaumer, 1870</p><p>= vorticosus Gerstaecker, 1872</p><p>= parnassius von Dalla Torre, 1882</p><p>= araraticus Radoszkowski, 1890</p><p>= pallidofasciatus Vogt, 1909</p><p>= postzonatus Vogt, 1911: 61, not of Vogt, 1911: 57 = skorikowi Friese, 1911</p><p>= iranensis Pittioni, 1937</p><p>= persicus Pittioni, 1937, not of Radoszkwski, 1881 = persiensis (Rasmont, 1983)</p><p>asiaticus -group</p><p>Bombus obtusus Richards, 1951</p><p>= badakshanensis (Tkalců, 1968)</p><p>Bombus tescorum Williams nom. nov. et stat. rev.</p><p>= miniatocaudatus Vogt, 1911, not of Vogt, 1909</p><p>Bombus longiceps Smith, 1878 stat. rev.</p><p>= flavodorsalis (Skorikov, 1933), not of Franklin, 1913, syn. nov. = oshanini (Skorikov, 1933) syn. nov.</p><p>= huangcens Wang, 1982 syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus falsificus Richards, 1930 stat. rev.</p><p>= heicens Wang, 1982 syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus asiaticus Morawitz, 1875</p><p>= bizonatus Smith, 1878, syn. nov.</p><p>= regeli Morawitz, 1880</p><p>= pamirensis Friese, 1913</p><p>= diversocaudatus Reinig, 1932</p><p>= flavicollis Wang, 1985</p><p>= baichengensis Wang, 1985</p><p>Key to species for females of the subgenus Sibiricobombus</p><p>Future identification of species of the subgenus Sibiricobombus will be most reliable for specimens from which COI-barcode-like data are available for comparison of nucleotide differences with the reference data in our Supp. file 1. Keys using morphological skeletal shape, surface sculpturing, and hair-colourpattern characters follow below. The couplets of the keys are differential diagnoses, in that (because of variation) for each couplet, it is the best fit for the majority of characters (and especially for those near the beginning of the couplet) that points to a decision for progressing to the next numbered couplet or to a species’ identification. Our results imply that in some cases (in at least one sex) we should be able to assign most reliably the specimens with locality labels to the next couplets or to species on the basis of their collection locality alone. All identifications of species from the key or from the figures should be checked against the species’ diagnoses within the accounts of each species.</p><p>Diagrams showing the major aspects of variation in the colour-patterns of the dorsal hair are presented in Figs 12‒89. These diagrams summarise only the major differences (Williams 2007) rather than finer details (e.g., Williams 1991: figs 371‒391). This is a simplification to aid quantitative comparisons and inevitably requires compromises. Colour-pattern variation within species is established with reference to particular individuals identified whenever possible from COI barcodes for each diagram. Morphology of the male genitalia is illustrated in Figs 90‒100.</p><p>1. Thoracic dorsum with the hair anterior to the wing bases and T1‒2 orange-red ................................ ...................................................................................................... B. morawitzi Radoszkowski, 1876</p><p>– Thoracic dorsum with the hair anterior to the wing bases and T1‒2 either yellow or white or black ........................................................................................................................................................... 2</p><p>2. From the region including Iran and Europe to its west .................................................................... 3</p><p>– From the region including Afghanistan and Asia to its east ............................................................. 4</p><p>3. Metasomal T4‒5 with the hair orange-red; clypeus in its centre with few widely spaced large punctures but with many more small punctures, often spaced by only their own diameters, so that much of the surface between the large punctures is uneven and locally convex (not flat, smooth and shining); hindleg basitarsus outer surface with the short branched hairs long so that they are just overlapping and the shining surface is partly obscured .................. B. niveatus Kriechbaumer, 1870</p><p>– Metasomal T4‒5 with the hair yellow; clypeus in its centre with few widely spaced large punctures and few small punctures, so that much of the surface between the large punctures is flat, smooth and shining; hindleg basitarsus outer surface with the short branched hairs so short that they are not overlapping and the surface is conspicuously brightly shining ................. B. sulfureus Friese, 1905</p><p>4. Metasomal T3 with the hair entirely yellow ........................................ B. sibiricus (Fabricius, 1781)</p><p>– Metasomal T3 with the hair either black or orange or white, at most with a narrow posterior yellow fringe ................................................................................................................................................. 5</p><p>5. Antennal A3 length ≤2× greatest breadth; hind basitarsus outer surface with the short hairs dense and strongly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are partly obscured and only weakly visible; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a longitudinal groove ......................... 6</p><p>– Antennal A3 length ≥ 2.5 × greatest breadth; hind basitarsus outer surface with the short hairs not especially dense and weakly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are clearly visible; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a raised boss .................................................... 7</p><p>6. Labral furrow broad, 0.35 × the entire breadth of the labrum; hair of T3 often extensively orange, T4‒5 dull orange (Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau) .......................... B. semenovi Morawitz, 1887 stat. rev.</p><p>– Labral furrow narrow, 0.25 × the entire breadth of the labrum; hair of T3 black at most with a narrow posterior pale fringe, T4‒5 either dull orange or dark brown or black (Tian Shan, Pamir) ............... ..................................................................................................................... B. oberti Morawitz, 1883</p><p>7. Hindleg basitarsus outer surface with few widely separated non-overlapping short weakly branched pale hairs so that the surface is conspicuously brightly shining; hair of T4 black at most with a few white hairs along the posterior margin (Afghanistan) .............................. B. obtusus Richards, 1951</p><p>– Hindleg basitarsus outer surface with many overlapping short weakly branched pale hairs so that the surface is partly obscured and weakly shining; hair of T4 either black or orange or white ............ 8</p><p>8. Clypeus with the anterior lateral corners with a small patch of large punctures spaced by their own breadths with only a very few widely spaced small punctures between them; T2 with the hair dorsally almost entirely yellow without black hairs even in the posterior lateral quarter (Xizang, Qinghai, Gansu) ...................................................................................... B. falsificus Richards, 1930 stat. rev.</p><p>– Clypeus with the anterior lateral corners with a large patch of large punctures spaced by their own breadths with a dense patch of many small and medium punctures between them; T2 with the hair dorsally with some black hairs along the posterior margin or in the posterior lateral quarter ......... 9</p><p>9. Ocello-ocular area with a broad band of dense fine punctures along the inner eye margin, this band along its inner edge without medium and large punctures; hair beneath the base of the hind wing either usually yellow or white or rarely black, thoracic dorsum either bright yellow or bright yellow with a black band between the wing bases or white with a black band between the wing bases, T4‒5 either predominantly white or orange-red or black but usually not noticeably paler at the tips (China, Central Asia, India) ......................................................................................................................... 10</p><p>– Ocello-ocular area with a broad band of dense fine punctures along the inner eye margin, this band along its inner edge with a few medium and large punctures; hair beneath the base of the hind wing usually black, thoracic dorsum either dull yellow with a black band between the wing bases or almost entirely black, T4‒5 pale pinkish-orange, the hairs often conspicuously paler at the tips (Mongolia, Russia) .......................................................................... B. tescorum Williams nom. nov. et stat. rev.</p><p>10. Hind tibia outer corbicular surface in its upper proximal half weakly sculptured and smooth, so that the shining reflections are scarcely interrupted by the sculpturing; T2 with the hair either usually nearly entirely yellow without black hairs intermixed along the midline or only rarely extensively black, T4 usually in the anterior half black, T5 either usually nearly white or rarely pale pinkish-orange (Tian Shan, Pamir, Afghanistan) ................................................ B. asiaticus Morawitz, 1875</p><p>– Hind tibia outer corbicular surface in its upper proximal half coarsely sculptured and rough or matt, so that reflections are much interrupted by the prominent sculpturing; T2 with the hair either part yellow or part white, with black at least intermixed along the midline, or black throughout, T4‒5 either usually predominantly orange or rarely white or black (western Himalaya, Ladakh) ............. ...................................................................................................... B. longiceps Smith, 1878 stat. rev.</p><p>Key to species for males of the subgenus Sibiricobombus</p><p>1. Eye not or scarcely enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by more than 2× the ocellar breadth .................................... 2</p><p>– Eye greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by 1× the ocellar breadth ............................................................ 4</p><p>2. Metasomal T3 with the hair entirely yellow; penis-valve head recurved section very broad, only narrowing at the tip .............................................................................. B. sibiricus (Fabricius, 1781)</p><p>– Metasomal T3 with the hair either black or orange; penis-valve head recurved section narrow, broadening towards just before the tip .............................................................................................. 3</p><p>3. Volsella with the inner distal corner as a broad but pointed hook projecting posteriorly almost as far as the outer distal corner (Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau) .............. B. semenovi Morawitz, 1887 stat. rev.</p><p>– Volsella with the inner distal corner broadly and evenly rounded and much shorter than the outer distal corner (Tian Shan, Pamir) ................................................................. B. oberti Morawitz, 1883</p><p>4. Clypeus with the hair black, thoracic dorsum anterior to the wing bases and T1‒2 orange-red; penis-valve head recurved section narrow finger-like and curved, concave posteriorly at the base ............ ...................................................................................................... B. morawitzi Radoszkowski, 1876</p><p>– Clypeus with the hair either yellow or white or at least with some grey hair anteriorly, thoracic dorsum anterior to the wing bases and T1‒2 yellow; penis-valve head recurved section broad triangular and straight, convex posteriorly at the base ..................................................................... 5</p><p>5. Volsella posterior to the gonostylus greatly broadened and weakly curved, penis-valve head on its inner side ventrally at the base marked by a projecting angle, this angle also marked dorsally (Iran and Europe to its west) ..................................................................................................................... 6</p><p>– Volsella posterior to the gonostylus narrowed and angled inwards towards the body midline, penis-valve head on its inner side ventrally at the base without a projecting angle, this angle only marked dorsally (Afghanistan and Asia to its east) ....................................................................................... 7</p><p>6. Metasomal T5‒7 with the hair orange-red; penis-valve head recurved section narrowing abruptly just before the tip, volsella just beyond gonostylus 2× its distal posterior breadth .................................. ......................................................................................................... B. niveatus Kriechbaumer, 1870</p><p>– Metasomal T5‒7 with the hair yellow; penis-valve head recurved section narrowing gradually towards the tip, volsella just beyond gonostylus 3× its breadth between the distal posterior corners .................................................................................................................... B. sulfureus Friese, 1905</p><p>7. Volsella beyond the gonostylus narrowing to less than its breadth between the distal posterior corners, gonostylus distal lobe approximately square, gonocoxa from the dorsal aspect distally as broad as adjacent spatha, S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a deep concave indentation ....... 8</p><p>– Volsella beyond the gonostylus nearly parallel-sided and consistently broader than its breadth between the distal posterior corners, gonostylus distal lobe approximately circular, gonocoxa from the dorsal aspect distally narrower than adjacent spatha, S6 with the posterior margin in the middle nearly straight and hardly concave (Afghanistan) .................................... B. obtusus Richards, 1951</p><p>8. Penis-valve head recurved section nearly straight posteriorly at the base ........................................ 9</p><p>– Penis-valve head recurved section strongly concave posteriorly at the base (Mongolia, Russia) ................................................................................. B. tescorum Williams nom. nov. et stat. rev.</p><p>9. Penis-valve shaft at its proximal base on its outer side with a deeply marked ‘S’-shaped step ..... 10</p><p>– Penis-valve shaft at its proximal base on its outer side with only a shallowly marked ‘S’-shaped step (Xizang, Qinghai, Gansu) ........................................................ B. falsificus Richards, 1930 stat. rev.</p><p>10. Metasomal T2 with the hair in part either yellow or white or black, T5‒6 either usually orange-red or rarely white or black (western Himalaya, Ladakh) ................. B. longiceps Smith, 1878 stat. rev.</p><p>– Metasomal T2 with the hair either usually nearly entirely yellow or rarely extensively black, T5‒6 white (Tian Shan, Pamir, Afghanistan) .................................................. B. asiaticus Morawitz, 1875</p><p>Accounts of the species</p><p>Accounts of the 11 species accepted after integrative assessment follow below. Square brackets [ Bombus xus] are used to indicate transliterations, translations, and interpretations.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC26156D7DDE0EFCAEFBF5F9AC	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC26116D72DDFBF9FFFA8CF8BC.text	FE5D87EC26116D72DDFBF9FFFA8CF8BC.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) sibiricus (Fabricius 1781)	<div><p>1. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) sibiricus (Fabricius, 1781)</p><p>Figs 1, 7–8, 12‒17, 90, 101</p><p>Apis ʃibirica [ = sibirica] Fabricius, 1781: 478.</p><p>BOMBUS MELINOIDES Fischer de Waldheim, 1843: pl. 122 n. 1.</p><p>Bombus flaviventris Friese, 1905: 514 .</p><p>Bombus (Subterraneobombus) flaviventris subsp. ochrobasis Richards, 1930: 655 .</p><p>Bombus (Pyrobombus) nikiforuki Tkalců, 1961: 354 .</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens body length 20‒21 mm, workers 12‒14 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head predominantly black, the thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands and metasomal T1‒3 entirely yellow, and hair of the band between the wing bases either yellow or orange or black, and hair of T4‒5 either orange or black, the lower side of thorax and legs black (Figs 12‒14). Morphology with hind basitarsus outer surface in the centre with short branched hairs dense, black and strongly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are interrupted; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a longitudinal ridge with a flattened crest.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 14‒17 mm. Colour pattern of the hair similar to the female, with the head black but with yellow on the vertex and on the clypeus, the thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands and metasomal T1‒3 entirely yellow, and hair of the band between the wing bases either yellow or orange or black, and hair of T4‒6 either orange or black, the coxae and legs predominantly black (Figs 15‒17). Morphology with the eye scarcely enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by more than 2 × the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a deep concave indentation; penis-valve head with the recurved section broad, narrowing gradually towards the tip (Fig. 90).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Lectotype of Apis sibirica (designated here) RUSSIA • ♀ (worker); “Sibiria”; P. Pallas leg.; NHMUK Banks Collection (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus melinoides (by monotypy?) RUSSIA • ♀ (queen); Irkutsk; (type not seen but identity not in doubt) .</p><p>Syntypes of Bombus flaviventris CHINA • 2 ♀♀ (queen, worker); ZMB (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Subterraneobombus) flaviventris subsp. ochrobasis (by original designation) CHINA • ♀ (queen); [not] Sikkim [Xizang], “Khamba Jong” [Gampa Dzong]; 15-30 Jul. 1903; NHMUK (examined PW).</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Pyrobombus) nikiforuki (by original designation) CHINA • ♀ (worker); Qinghai, “Hsi-li-gou” north of Dulan; 31 Aug. 1950; C. Yang leg.; LMOB (examined PW) .</p><p>Material examined</p><p>CHINA ‒ Gansu • 2 ♂♂; Yongden, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=103.0472&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=36.6767" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 103.0472/lat 36.6767)">Tongyuan</a>; 36.6767° N, 103.0472° E; 2 Sep. 2010; P. Williams leg.; BOLD nos: 6880C09, 6880C10 (COI); PW, SB058, SB059 . ‒ Inner Mongolia • 1 ♀ (worker), 1 ♂; <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=117.3153&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=43.2176" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 117.3153/lat 43.2176)">Majiazi</a>; 43.2176° N, 117.3153° E; 10 Sep. 2007; P. Williams leg.; BOLD nos: 6880C11, 6880C12 (COI); PW, SB060, SB061 . – Qinghai • 1 ♀ (worker); Xingfucan; 35.8993° N, 97.8892° E; 10 Aug. 2013; P. Williams leg.; PW, SB002 / NHMC06 • 1 ♀ (worker); NW of Dulan; 36.6689° N, 98.1181° E; 14 Aug. 2013; P. Williams leg.; PW, SB001 / NHMC07 . ‒</p><p>MONGOLIA ‒ Zavkhan • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=97.8645&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=48.3313" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 97.8645/lat 48.3313)">Tegshiin Gol</a>; 48.3313° N, 97.8645° E; 22 Jul. 2004; J. Gelhaus leg.; BOLD no.: 1550G03 (COI); KSEM, SB044 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>Asian desert-edge and Tibetan Plateau species: Fig. 101 ‒ North Asia: KAZAKHSTAN, MONGOLIA, RUSSIA: East Siberia. ‒ East Asia: CHINA: Xinjiang, Xizang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia. One of the highest recorded bumblebee species in the world at 5640 m a.s.l., along with B. tibeticus Williams, 2020 (recorded in 2018 under the name B. keriensis Morawitz s. lat.) and B. tanguticus Morawitz, 1887 from a site beside the West Rongbuk Glacier in Tibet [= Xizang], at 28.061160° N, 86.847273° E (Williams 2018). The species is so far unrecorded from central Xizang, e.g., in collections from the Tanggu La mountains. (AB, EA, EB, IAR, IZCAS, LMOB, NHMUK, PW, RDJ, UUH, VLA, ZIN, ZMB.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is scarcely enlarged relative to the eye of a female, as in most bumblebees, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the most widespread male “patrolling” behaviour (Awram 1970; Svensson 1979), as for B. tunicatus Smith, 1852, compared with “racing” behaviour (below) (Williams 1991). It is also possible, but unrecorded, that the males might seek out colonies with young females.</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>Note on the lectotype of Apis sibirica Fabricius, 1781: this would appear to be (one of?) the specimen(s) referred to by Fabricius (1781) in the original description as being in the Banks Collection (“ Dr. Pallas. Muʃ. Dom. Banks. ”). Because the number of specimens of Apis sibirica in this collection seen by Fabricius was not explicit in the original description and others may have existed, this individual which lacks the left hind tarsi and has some glue on the underside (with a later red-edged, round NHMUK label printed with “Type / H.T.”, a recent printed label identifying B. sibiricus: “BMNH(E) #668744”, and an old drawer label “ Apis Sibirica / Fabr. Sp. ruf.[?] No 22.”) is designated as lectotype in order to reduce uncertainty in the identity of the taxon and in the application of the name.</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. sibiricus here agrees with the recent interpretation (Williams 1998), presenting evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys).</p><p>The species-level coalescent in the COI gene (Fig. 1) also supports as conspecific the red-tailed taxon sibiricus s. str. from Mongolia and the black-tailed taxon flaviventris from the QTP. This conspecificity is corroborated by their closely similar morphology (see the key). Surprisingly, the black-tailed taxon flaviventris has had unusually widely different interpretations by previous authors: (1) as part of a “Gruppe confusus ” (Friese 1905); (2) as part of the subgenus Subterraneobombus (Richards 1930); or (3) as part of the subgenus Sibiricobombus (Williams 1991, 1998).</p><p>Individuals of the orange-tailed colour pattern vary from having a distinct orange band in the hair between the wing bases (taxon sibiricus s. str.) to having the thoracic dorsum entirely yellow (taxon melinoides).</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC26116D72DDFBF9FFFA8CF8BC	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC261E6D70DDAEF8CFFB03FB39.text	FE5D87EC261E6D70DDAEF8CFFB03FB39.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) semenovi Morawitz 1887	<div><p>2. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) semenovi Morawitz, 1887 stat. rev.</p><p>Figs 1, 7–8, 18‒21, 91</p><p>Bombus Semenovi Morawitz, 1887: 198 . Note 1.</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) xionglaris Wang, 1982: 432 . Syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus (Subterraneobombus) duanjiaoris Wang, 1982: 444 . Syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus (Subterraneobombus) zhadaensis Wang, 1982: 444 . Syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus semenowii ‒ von Dalla Torre 1896: 546, unjustified emendation.</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) oberti ‒ Williams 1991: 92, (in part) misidentification.</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens body length 20‒23 mm, workers 12‒13 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head, lower side of the thorax and legs predominantly black, metasomal T3‒4 either black or more or less extensively dull orange, thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands and T1‒2 yellow, T5 dull orange (Figs 18‒20). Morphology with labral furrow broad, 0.35 × the entire breadth of the labrum; antennal A3 length 2 × greatest breadth; hind basitarsus outer surface in the centre with short branched hairs dense, black and strongly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are interrupted; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a deep narrow longitudinal groove.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 16 mm. Colour pattern of the hair similar to the female, with the head except the yellow vertex, legs predominantly black, thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands, anterior sides of the thorax, and T1‒2 yellow, metasomal T3 either black or more or less extensively dull orange, T4‒6 dull orange (Fig. 21). Morphology with the eye scarcely enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by more than 2× the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a shallow narrow concave indentation; volsella with the inner distal corner as a broad but obtusely pointed hook projecting posteriorly almost as far as the outer distal corner (Fig. 91).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Syntype of Bombus semenovi (lectotype designation by Podbolotskaya unpubl.) CHINA • ♀ (queen); Qinghai, “im Thale des gelben Flusses” [ Yellow River, Huang He]; [1884]; N. Przhevalsky leg.; ZIN (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) xionglaris (by original designation) CHINA • ♂; Xizang, Nyalam; 31 May 1974; X. Zhang leg.; IZCAS (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Subterraneobombus) duanjiaoris (by original designation) CHINA • ♀ (worker); Xizang, Rutog; 23 Aug. 1976; F. Huang leg.; IZCAS (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Subterraneobombus) zhadaensis (by original designation) CHINA • ♀ (queen); Xizang, Zanda; 25 Jun. 1976; F. Huang leg.; IZCAS (examined PW) .</p><p>Material examined</p><p>CHINA ‒ Qinghai • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=94.052&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=35.692" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 94.052/lat 35.692)">Kunlun Shan Pass</a>; 35.6920° N, 94.0520° E; 13 Aug. 2013; P. Williams leg.; PW, SB003 / NHMC08 • 2 ♀♀ (workers); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=94.4052&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=35.9063" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 94.4052/lat 35.9063)">Kunlun Shan</a>; 35.9063° N, 94.4052° E; 18 Jul. 2017; IZCAS, SB040 / MOBBT3, SB089 / BB07 • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=94.0533&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=35.6917" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 94.0533/lat 35.6917)">Kunlun Shan Pass</a>; 35.6917° N, 94.0533° E; 19 Aug. 2013; IAR, SB016 /JH8 . ‒ Xizang • 1 ♂; <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=91.9174&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=32.8614" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 91.9174/lat 32.8614)">Tanggula Shan</a>; 32.8614° N, 91.9174° E; 18 Aug. 2015; IAR, SB004 /JH13 • 1 ♀ (queen); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=91.9174&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=32.8614" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 91.9174/lat 32.8614)">Tanggula Shan</a>; 32.8614° N, 91.9174° E; 29 Jun. 1999; K. Huber leg.; BOLD no.: 1552A07 (COI); LMOB, SB041 • 1 ♂; near Zhilong; 32.8614° N, 91.9174° E; 18 Aug. 2015; IAR, SB017 /JHNEW .</p><p>INDIA ‒ Jammu &amp; Kashmir • 1 ♀ (queen); Zanskar, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=77.5881&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=33.7927" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 77.5881/lat 33.7927)">Nimaling</a>; 33.7927° N, 77.5881° E; 18 Aug. 1980; P. Williams leg.; BOLD no.: 1555D11 (COI); PW, SB014 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>Tibetan high montane species ‒ East Asia: INDIA: Kashmir &amp; Jammu; CHINA: Xizang, Qinghai. (IAR, IZCAS, NHMUK, PW, ZIN.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is scarcely enlarged relative to the eye of a female, as in most bumblebees, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the most widespread male “patrolling” behaviour (Awram 1970; Svensson 1979), as for B. tunicatus, compared with “racing” behaviour (below) (Williams 1991). It is also possible, but unrecorded, that the males might seek out colonies with young females.</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>Note 1 on the name B. semenovi Morawitz, 1887 stat. rev.: the type locality of B. semenovi is probably near the source of the Yellow River, in the river valley downstream from the Zhaling Hu in Qinghai. See the discussion of the type locality of B. (Melanobombus) tanguticus Morawitz, 1887 in Williams (2018).</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. semenovi stat. rev. here agrees with the recent interpretation of a species separate from B. oberti (Williams 2022a), presenting evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys).</p><p>Queens show some variation from T3 black (Qinghai) to T3 predominantly orange-red, or at least with an orange-red fringe posteriorly (Zanskar, Kashmir, India).</p><p>The taxa xionglaris, duanjiaoris and zhadaensis are re-descriptions of the taxon semenovi .</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC261E6D70DDAEF8CFFB03FB39	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC261C6D76DDD0FB48FEB1FD1E.text	FE5D87EC261C6D76DDD0FB48FEB1FD1E.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) oberti Morawitz 1883	<div><p>3. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) oberti Morawitz, 1883</p><p>Figs 1, 7–8, 22‒25, 92</p><p>Bombus Oberti Morawitz, 1883: 238 .</p><p>Bombus melanurus var. [= subsp.] apicatus Friese, 1911: 457. Syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus (Obertobombus) oberti var. [= subsp.] griseofasciatus Reinig, 1930: 108, not of Reinig, 1930: 83 (= B. difficillimus Skorikov, 1912).</p><p>Bombus obertii ‒ von Dalla Torre 1896: 538, unjustified emendation.</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens body length 20‒23 mm, workers 13 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head, lower side of the thorax and legs predominantly black, thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands and T1‒2 either yellow (workers and some queens) or grey-white (some queens), metasomal T3 black, at most with a narrow posterior pale fringe, T4‒5 either dull orange or dark brown or black (Figs 22‒24). Morphology with labral furrow narrow, 0.25 × the entire breadth of the labrum; antennal A3 length 2 × greatest breadth; hind basitarsus outer surface with short branched hairs dense, black and strongly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are interrupted; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a deep narrow longitudinal groove.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 17 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head black with yellow on the vertex and on the clypeus, the legs with many pale hairs, thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands and T1‒2 yellow, metasomal T3 black, T4‒6 dull orange (Fig. 25). Morphology with S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a shallow narrow indentation; volsella with the inner distal corner broadly and evenly rounded and much shorter than the outer distal corner (Fig. 92).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Lectotype of Bombus oberti (by designation of Williams 1991: 92) KAZAKHSTAN • ♂; “im Hochgebirge bei Wernoye” [Almaty]; A. Kuschakewitsch leg.; ZIN (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus melanurus var. [= subsp.] apicatus (by monotypy) KYRGYZSTAN • ♀ (queen); “ Pamir Hochland am Alai ”; ZMB (examined PW).</p><p>Lectotype of Bombus (Obertobombus) oberti var. [= subsp.] griseofasciatus (designated here) TAJIKISTAN • ♀ (queen); Pamir, “ Pass Naisa-Tasch ”; 31 Jul. 1928; W. Reinig leg.; Naturalis (examined PW).</p><p>Material examined</p><p>TAJIKISTAN • 1 ♀ (queen); Pamir, SE Kara-Kul; 38.9537° N, 73.5076° E; 12 Jul. 1928; W. Reinig leg.; Naturalis, SB042/NHMK01 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>Rare Central Asian high montane species ‒ Central Asia: KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN, TAJIKISTAN. (Naturalis, PW, ZIN, ZMB.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is scarcely enlarged relative to the eye of a female, as in most bumblebees, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the most widespread male “patrolling” behaviour (Awram 1970; Svensson 1979), as for B. tunicatus, compared with “racing” behaviour (below) (Williams 1991). It is also possible, but unrecorded, that the males might seek out colonies with young females.</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>Note on the name B. oberti var. griseofasciatus Reinig, 1930: although Reinig used both “subsp.” and “var.’in his 1930 publication, which would imply infrasubspecific status for taxa described as “var.”, he gave the taxon griseofasciatus a geographically defined distribution in the “Pamir-Gebiet” (p. 109) and also used the name as a simple trinomen “ Bombus oberti griseofasciatus ” (p. 73), both of which would appear to confer subspecific status.</p><p>Note on the lectotype of B. oberti var. griseofasciatus Reinig, 1930: the label data matches the data for one of the specimens referred to by Reinig 1930 in the original description. Because others were listed, this individual, which lacks the right hind terminal joint of the tarsus and has a bald patch on T2 (labels: (1) printed “Zentral – Pamir / VII.-VIII.28 / leg. Reinig”; (2) hand-written “Pass Naisa-Tasch / 4100m 31.VI.28”; (3) hand-written “ B.oberti / griseofasciatus / det. W. F. Reinig”; (4) printed “Collectie / C. et O. Vogt / Acq. 1960”; (5) red printed “ Bombus / oberti griseofasciatus / Reinig, 1930 / ZMAN type HYME.0106.7”; (6) printed “ZMA.INS.959151 [square barcode]”; (7) printed “ Bombus / ( Sibiricobombus) / oberti / det. PH Williams 2018 ”; (8) red hand-written “ LECTOTYPE ♀ / Bombus oberti / var. [= ssp.] / griseofasciatus / Reinig, 1930 / det. PH Williams 2023 ”) is designated as lectotype in order to reduce uncertainty in the identity of the taxon and in the application of the name.</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. oberti here agrees with the recent interpretation of a species separate from B. semenovi stat. rev. (Williams 2022a), presenting evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys).</p><p>In the Tian Shan, queens, workers, and males all have yellow bands and an orange-red tail. However, in the Pamir, while workers and males retain a similar colour pattern, queens have the yellow replaced by grey-white and the tails are either black or dark brown (the colour-pattern taxon apicatus; Reinig 1930, 1932, 1934).</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC261C6D76DDD0FB48FEB1FD1E	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC261A6D75DD85FD6EFEDFFAD0.text	FE5D87EC261A6D75DD85FD6EFEDFFAD0.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) morawitzi Radoszkowski 1876	<div><p>4. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) morawitzi Radoszkowski, 1876</p><p>Figs 1, 7–8, 26‒30, 93</p><p>Bombus Morawitzi Radoszkowski, 1876: 101 .</p><p>BOMBUS OPPOSITUS Smith, 1878: 9.</p><p>Bombus hydrophthalmus Morawitz, 1883: 240 .</p><p>Bombus morawitzii ‒ von Dalla Torre 1896: 535, unjustified emendation.</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens body length 19‒23 mm, workers 12‒18 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head predominantly black with only a few brown hairs intermixed on the vertex, the thoracic dorsum and metasomal T1‒5 bright orange-red, the side of the thorax and legs predominantly black (Figs 26‒27). Morphology with the hind basitarsus outer surface in the centre with short branched hairs dense, black and strongly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are interrupted; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a raised boss.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 14‒18 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head predominantly black including the clypeus, often with orange hairs more or less intermixed on the vertex, the thoracic dorsum and metasomal T1‒6 bright orange-red, either the side or the lower side of the thorax and the legs predominantly black (Figs 28‒30). Morphology with the eye greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by 1× the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle nearly straight; penis-valve head recurved section narrow curved and finger-like, concave posteriorly at the base (Fig. 93).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Lectotype of Bombus morawitzi (by designation of Tkalců 1968: 199) UZBEKISTAN • ♀ (queen); “ Samarkand ”; ZMB (examined PW).</p><p>Holotype of Bombus oppositus (by monotypy) CHINA • ♀ (queen); Xinjiang, “Yark. Exp.” “No precise locality indicated” [mountains west of Yarkant?]; F. Stoliczka leg.; NZSI (examined PW) .</p><p>Syntype of Bombus hydrophthalmus KAZAKHSTAN • ♂; “im Hochgebirge bei Wernoye” [Almaty]; A. Kuschakewitsch leg.; NHMUK (examined PW) .</p><p>Material examined</p><p>AFGHANISTAN • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=73.63&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=37.09" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 73.63/lat 37.09)">Wakhan</a>, N of Borak; 37.09° N, 73.63° E; 9 Jul. 1971; GG, SB095 / GG002 .</p><p>CHINA ‒ Xinjiang • 1 ♀ (worker); Kuqa, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=83.2538&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=42.4358" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 83.2538/lat 42.4358)">Ku’ergan</a>; 42.4358° N, 83.2538° E; 31 Jul. 2011; IAR, SB015 /NHMC06 • 1 ♀ (worker); Akqi, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=78.3568&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=40.9055" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 78.3568/lat 40.9055)">Sumutashi</a>; 40.9055° N, 78.3568° E; 15 Jul. 2012; IAR, SB019 / NHMC01 .</p><p>TAJIKISTAN • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=71.5846&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=37.9901" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 71.5846/lat 37.9901)">Pamir</a>, Rushan; 37.9901° N, 71.5846° E; Jul. 2000; Gurko leg.; BOLD no.: 6880F04 (COI); MM, SB077 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>Central Asian high montane species ‒ Central Asia: AFGHANISTAN, TAJIKISTAN, KYRGYZSTAN, KAZAKHSTAN, CHINA: Xinjiang. (AB, GG, IAR, IZCAS, Naturalis, NHMUK, NZSI, PW, UMons, ZIN, ZMB.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee and the male antenna is strongly elongated, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the “racing” behaviour described for “ B. asiaticus ” (actually B. longiceps stat. rev.) with these morphological characteristics by Williams (1991).</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. morawitzi here agrees with the recent interpretation as a distinctive species (Tkalců 1968; Williams 1998; Ghisbain et al. 2020). We present evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys).</p><p>The colour pattern of this species shows little variation, although there is some variation in both sexes in how much black hair is intermixed on T1 and in males in the extent of the black hair on the side of the thorax.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC261A6D75DD85FD6EFEDFFAD0	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC26196D74DDD1FAD3FCAAF9AE.text	FE5D87EC26196D74DDD1FAD3FCAAF9AE.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) sulfureus Friese 1905	<div><p>5. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) sulfureus Friese, 1905</p><p>Figs 1, 7–8, 31‒32, 94</p><p>Bombus vorticosus subsp. sulfureus Friese, 1905: 521 .</p><p>BOMBUS (SIBIRICOBOMBUS) SULFUREUS var. [= subsp.] AUREOCORBICULARIS Pittioni, 1937: 121.</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens body length 16‒19 mm, workers 15 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head predominantly black, the thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands and metasomal T1‒6 yellow, lower side of thorax and legs black (Fig. 31). Morphology with the clypeus in its centre with scattered large and few small punctures, so that the surface has smooth shining areas; hindleg basitarsus outer surface with short branched hairs so short and sparse that they are not overlapping and the surface is conspicuously brightly shining; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially slightly but irregularly raised.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 15 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the entire body predominantly yellow, except for the thoracic dorsum with black hair between the wing bases (Fig. 32). Morphology with the eye greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by 1× the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a deep concave indentation; volsella posterior to the gonostylus greatly broadened and nearly straight, penis-valve head on its inner side ventrally at the base marked by a ridge with a projecting angle, this angle also marked dorsally on a parallel dorsal ridge; penis-valve head recurved section narrowing gradually towards the tip, volsella just beyond gonostylus 3× its breadth between its distal posterior corners (Fig. 94).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Type of B. vorticosus subsp. sulfureus “Asia minor”; (type not seen but identity not in doubt).</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) sulfureus var. [= subsp.] aureocorbicularis (by monotypy) IRAN • (worker); Alborz, “Keredj-Mazanderan”; Brandt leg.; 12 Aug.; (type not seen but identity not in doubt).</p><p>Material examined</p><p>IRAN • 1 ♀ (queen); Qazvin, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=47.2609&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=38.5488" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 47.2609/lat 38.5488)">Werk</a>; 38.5488° N, 47.2609° E; 6 Jun. 2007; A. Monfared leg.; PW, SB008 / NHMI027 • 1 ♀ (worker); Qazvin, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=50.6639&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=36.387" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 50.6639/lat 36.387)">Bala Rouch</a>; 36.3870° N, 50.6639° E; 19 Aug. 2012; A. Monfared leg.; PW, SB007 /NHMI025 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>Rare West Asian montane species ‒ West Asia: TURKEY, IRAN. (AM, NHMUK, PW, UMons.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee and the male antenna is strongly elongated, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the “racing” behaviour described for “ B. asiaticus ” (actually B. longiceps stat. rev.) with these morphological characteristics by Williams (1991). Similar “racing” behaviour has been observed in Turkey (Rasmont et al. 2021).</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. sulfureus here agrees with the recent interpretation (Williams 1998; Monfared et al. 2007; Rasmont et al. 2021) of a species separate from B. niveatus, presenting evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys). This separation of B. sulfureus from B. niveatus is also supported by a difference in CLGS (Rasmont et al. 2005).</p><p>The colour pattern of this species shows little variation.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC26196D74DDD1FAD3FCAAF9AE	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC26186D49DD89F9F9FE23FAF9.text	FE5D87EC26186D49DD89F9F9FE23FAF9.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) niveatus Kriechbaumer 1870	<div><p>6. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) niveatus Kriechbaumer, 1870</p><p>Figs 1, 7–8, 33‒44, 95</p><p>Bombus niveatus Kriechbaumer, 1870: 101 .</p><p>Bombus vorticosus Gerstaecker, 1872: 290 .</p><p>Bombus (Kallobombus) Parnassius von Dalla Torre, 1882: 21 .</p><p>Bombus araraticus Radoszkowski, 1890: 502 .</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) asiaticus [subsp.] pallidofasciatus Vogt, 1909: 51.</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) vorticosus Forma [= subsp.] postzonatus Vogt, 1911: 61, not of Vogt, 1911: 57 (= B. cullumanus (Kirby, 1802)) .</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) niveatus var. [= subsp.] skorikowi Friese, 1911: 572, not of Vogt, 1911: 51 (= B. pratorum (Linnaeus, 1761)) .</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) vorticosus morpha [= subsp.] iranensis Pittioni, 1937: 120.</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) niveatus morpha [= subsp.] persicus Pittioni, 1937: 121, not of Radoszkowski, 1881: v (= B. persicus Radoszkowski, 1881).</p><p>Pyrobombus (Sibiricobombus) niveatus [subsp.] persiensis Rasmont, 1983: 168, replacement name for B. niveatus subsp. persicus Pittioni, 1937 .</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens body length 17‒22 mm, workers 9‒16 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head predominantly black, legs black, the thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands, side of thorax, and metasomal T1‒2 either yellow or white, T3 at least in part either black or yellow or white, T4‒5 orange-red (Figs 33‒38). Morphology with the clypeus in its centre with scattered large and very many small punctures, so that the surface is uneven; hindleg basitarsus outer surface with short branched hairs long so that they are just overlapping and the shining surface is only partly obscured; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially slightly but irregularly raised.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 15‒17 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head, side of thorax, legs, thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands and metasomal T1‒2 either yellow or white, T3 at least in part either black or yellow or white, T4‒7 orange-red (Figs 39‒44). Morphology with the eye greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by 1× the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a deep concave indentation; volsella posterior to the gonostylus greatly broadened and weakly curved, penis-valve head on its inner side ventrally at the base marked by a ridge with a projecting angle, this angle also marked dorsally on a parallel dorsal ridge; penis-valve head recurved section narrowing abruptly just before the tip, volsella just beyond gonostylus 2 × its breadth between its distal posterior corners (Fig. 95).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Lectotype of Bombus niveatus (by designation of Tkalců 1969: 897) ISRAEL • ♀ (queen), “Palaestina”; ZSM (type not seen but identity not in doubt) .</p><p>Syntypes of Bombus vorticosus UNKNOWN • (syntypes of both sexes and castes); most from ”Krakau” [locality likely in error]; Nowicki leg.; (types not found by Tkalců 1969: 897, but identity not in doubt).</p><p>Syntypes of Bombus (Kallobombus) parnassius GREECE • “ Parnass ”; (types not seen but identity not in doubt).</p><p>Lectotype of Bombus araraticus (by designation of Tkalců 1969: 897) TURKEY • ♂; “Ararat”; O. Radoszkowski leg.; ZMB (type not seen but identity not in doubt) .</p><p>Syntypes of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) asiaticus [subsp.] pallidofasciatus RUSSIA • “ Kaukasus ”; unknown repository (types not seen but identity not in doubt).</p><p>Syntypes of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) vorticosus Forma [= subsp.] postzonatus TURKMENISTAN • 2 ♀♀ (queens); “Krassnowodsk” [Turkmenbashi]; unknown repository (types not seen but identity not in doubt).</p><p>Lectotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) vorticosus morpha [= subsp.] iranensis (designated here) IRAN • ♀ (queen); Alborz, Nissa; 1–10 Aug. 1936; Brandt leg.; NHMUK (examined PW) .</p><p>Lectotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) niveatus morpha [= subsp.] persicus (designated here) IRAN • ♀ (queen); Alborz, Nissa; 20 Jul.–1 Aug. 1936; Brandt leg.; NHMUK (examined PW) .</p><p>Material examined</p><p>GEORGIA • 1 ♀ (queen); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=44.133&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=41.5891" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 44.133/lat 41.5891)">Calka</a>, Bashdashi; 41.5891° N, 44.1330° E; 27 May 2011; BOLD no.: 1555A02 (COI); IEAUG, SB053 .</p><p>GREECE • 3 ♀♀ (workers); N of Lamia; 38.9365° N, 22.4300° E; 8 Jun. 2016; M. Halada leg.; BOLD nos: 6880G01 to 6880G03 (COI); PW, SB086 to SB088 .</p><p>IRAN • 1 ♀ (worker); Qazvin, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=50.6893&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=36.3754" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 50.6893/lat 36.3754)">Vikan</a>; 36.3754° N, 50.6893° E; 9 Aug. 2011; A. Monfared leg.; PW, SB010 /NHMI010 • 1 ♀ (queen); Qazvin, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=50.6893&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=36.3754" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 50.6893/lat 36.3754)">Wikan</a> [Vikan]; [36.3754° N, 50.6893° E]; 30 Jul. 2006; A. Taghavi leg.; PW, SB013 /NHMI028 • 1 ♀ (worker); Tehran, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=52.0586&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=35.7013" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 52.0586/lat 35.7013)">Damavand</a>; 35.7013° N, 52.0586° E; 14 Jun. 2015; A. Monfared leg.; PW, SB009 /NHMI008 • 2 ♀♀ (worker, queen); Qazvin, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=50.6893&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=36.3754" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 50.6893/lat 36.3754)">Vikan</a>; 36.3754° N, 50.6893° E; 9 Aug. 2011; A. Monfared leg.; PW, SB011/NHMI011, SB012/NHMI009 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>West Asian and European montane species ‒ Europe: ALBANIA, GREECE, UKRAINE, RUSSIA: Caucasus. ‒ West Asia: TURKEY, GEORGIA, SYRIA, LEBANON, ISRAEL, IRAN, TURKMENISTAN. (AM, GG, Naturalis, NHMUK, PW, UMons, ZIN, ZMB.)</p><p>Records of B. niveatus from Xizang (Wang 1982) are misidentifications of B. (Melanobombus) keriensis Morawitz, 1887 (Williams et al. 2020).</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee and the male antenna is strongly elongated, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the “racing” behaviour described for “ B. asiaticus ” (actually B. longiceps stat. rev.) with these morphological characteristics by Williams (1991).</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>Note on the syntypes of B. vorticosus Gerstaecker, 1872: described as most syntypes from “Krakau” [locality likely in error]; Nowicki leg.; (types not found by Tkalců 1969: 897, but identity not in doubt). The given type locality is very unlikely to be either Kraków (Poland) or Krakau (Austria) as these are far too far north for this species.</p><p>Note on the lectotype of B. vorticosus morpha iranensis Pittioni, 1937 designated here: the original description data from Pittioni (1937) match one of the specimens in the NHMUK collection. Because other specimens were listed, this individual, which lacks both antennae (labels: (1) printed “ IRAN: ELBURS-GEB. / NISSA, (CA.3000 M.) / 1.8. – 10.8.1936 / LEG.BRANDT”; (2) hand-written “ vortic. ira - / ♀ nensis Pitt / det. Pittioni”; (3) hand-written with black border “f. iranensis / Pitt typ.”; (4) printed “Pittioni Coll. / Turner Bequest / B.M. 1954-76”; (5) printed “[barcode] / NHMUK 013380602”; (6) printed “ Bombus / ( Sibiricobombus) / niveatus / det. PH Williams 2022”; (7) red hand-written “ LECTOTYPE ♀ / Bombus vorticosus / morpha [= ssp.] / iranensis / Pittioni, 1937 / det. PH Williams 2023 ”) is designated as lectotype in order to reduce uncertainty in the identity of the taxon and in the application of the name.</p><p>Note on the lectotype of B. niveatus morpha persicus Pittioni, 1937 designated here: the original description data from Pittioni (1937) match one of the specimens in the NHMUK collection. Because other specimens were listed, this individual, which lacks the right antenna (labels: (1) red hand-written “Type”; (2) printed “B.M. TYPE / HYM / 17b.1318”; (3) printed “ IRAN: ELBURS-GEB. / NISSA, (CA.3000 M.) / 20.7. – 1.8.1936 / LEG.BRANDT”; (4) hand-written “ niveatus per - / ♀ sicus Pitt / det. Pittioni”; (5) printed “Pittioni Coll. / Turner Bequest / B.M. 1954-76”; (6) printed “[barcode] / NHMUK 013380602”; (7) printed “ Bombus / ( Sibiricobombus) / niveatus / det. PH Williams 2022”; (8) red hand-written “ LECTOTYPE ♀ / Bombus niveatus / morpha [= ssp.] / persicus / Pittioni, 1937 / det. PH Williams 2023 ”) is designated as lectotype in order to reduce uncertainty in the identity of the taxon and in the application of the name.</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. niveatus here agrees with the recent interpretation (e.g., Williams 1998; Monfared et al. 2007; Rasmont et al. 2021) of a species separate from B. sulfureus, presenting evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys). This separation of B. niveatus from B. sulfureus is also supported by a difference in CLGS (Rasmont et al. 2005).</p><p>The species-level coalescent in the COI gene (Fig. 1) also supports as conspecific the white-banded taxon niveatus s. str. and the yellow-banded taxon vorticosus . Conspecificity is corroborated by their morphology (see the keys) and by their similar male CLGS mixtures (Rasmont et al. 2005). It has been claimed that the two taxa “differ significantly” in habitat (Rasmont et al. 2021), although it also appears that their distributions are broadly overlapping and geographically concentric, with the white-banded colour pattern the more frequent at higher elevations (where it co-occurs with other white-banded bumblebees). This might be explained by mimetic selection in favour of different mimetic model patterns at different elevations. It is common for pale-banded mountain bumblebees to have both yellow- and white-banded colour patterns that are more frequent in different areas (Williams 2007). There are several examples of this in the subgenus Melanobombus (Williams et al. 2020) .</p><p>Both the yellow-banded and the white-banded colour patterns also vary in whether T3 is entirely black (Greece, Turkey, Lebanon) or, in the Alborz mountains of northern Iran, has more extensive pale hair (yellow taxon iranensis, white taxon persiensis), varying from a posterior fringe on T3 to covering T3 entirely in the male (Pittioni’s infrasubspecific taxon brandti). Individuals with T3 extensively yellow resemble B. sulfureus .</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC26186D49DD89F9F9FE23FAF9	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC26256D4EDDEAFA08FE37FCE8.text	FE5D87EC26256D4EDDEAFA08FE37FCE8.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) obtusus Richards 1951	<div><p>7. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) obtusus Richards, 1951</p><p>Figs 1, 7, 9, 45‒48, 96</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) obtusus Richards, 1951: 196 .</p><p>Pyrobombus (Sibiricobombus) obtusus [subsp.] badakshanensis Tkalců, 1968: 201.</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens unknown, body length workers 12‒14 mm. Colour pattern of the hair with the head and legs usually predominantly black sometimes with some yellow intermixed, the thoracic dorsum anterior and posterior bands, side of thorax, and metasomal T1‒2 bright sulphur yellow, metasomal T3‒4 black, T4 at most with a few white hairs along the posterior margin, T5 white (Figs 45‒46). Morphology with the oculo-malar area anteriorly sparsely covered with large punctures regularly spaced; antennal A3 length 3 × greatest breadth; hind basitarsus outer surface with the short branched hairs few and very widely spaced so that they are not overlapping, with reflections from the outer surface clearly visible and brightly shining; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially weakly raised.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 12‒14 mm. Colour pattern of the hair similar to the female but with yellow hair on the head, more often intermixed between the wing bases, on the legs, and with metasomal T3‒4 black, at most with a few white hairs along the posterior margins (Figs 47‒48). Morphology with the eye greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by 1 × the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle nearly straight and hardly concave; gonocoxa from the dorsal aspect distally narrower than adjacent spatha, gonostylus distal lobe approximately circular, volsella beyond gonostylus strongly inwardly curved, nearly parallel-sided, and consistently just broader than its breadth between the distal posterior corners (Fig. 96).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) obtusus (by original designation) AFGHANISTAN • ♂; Koh-i-Baba, Puistagoli; 2 Aug. 1948; N. Haarløv leg.; SNM, 00240323 (photos examined PW) .</p><p>Material examined</p><p>AFGHANISTAN • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=66.867&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=34.3824" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 66.867/lat 34.3824)">Hindu Kush</a>; [34.3824° N, 66.8670° E]; 8 Aug. 1968; M. Tong leg.; BOLD no.: 6880D07 (COI); NHMUK, SB068 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>Rare endemic Afghan montane species ‒ Central Asia: AFGHANISTAN. (NHMUK, UMons.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee and the male antenna is strongly elongated, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the “racing” behaviour described for “ B. asiaticus ” (actually B. longiceps stat. rev.) with these morphological characteristics by Williams (1991).</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. obtusus here agrees with the recent interpretation (Tkalců 1968; Williams 1998) of a species separate from B. asiaticus, presenting evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys).</p><p>Richards (1951: 198) described the females of B. obtusus as “Structurally apparently identical with B. asiaticus F. Mor. and only differing in that all the hairs of abdominal tergite 4 are black”. Tkalců (1968: 198) described this species only as being morphologically more closely related to B. morawitzi than to B. asiaticus . To support these groups he cites differences in the incisura of the mandible, although these differences appear to be at best subtle and inconsistent. However, Williams (1991: 90) described a character difference between B. obtusus and B. asiaticus in the hairs of the hind basitarsus that is more reliable (see the key). Richards (1951) and Tkalců (1969) appear to have been, in effect, using colour pattern alone to determine what they considered to be “ B. obtusus ”, which could explain why some of their descriptions of its colour-pattern variation may be inconsistent with those reported here based</p><p>on morphology, because they may have been including some individuals considered here to be part of B. asiaticus .</p><p>Variation in the colour pattern of B. obtusus has been described in three aspects. First, the black band between the wing bases varies from narrower than the yellow anterior band, but distinct with a sharp boundary, to indistinct with a mixture of yellow, to being replaced by yellow (taxon badakshanensis), especially for males (Richards 1951; Tkalců 1968).</p><p>Second, one worker (collection site unspecified) was described as having the T5‒6 pale hairs with their bases “brownish-red” (Richards 1951; Tkalců 1968). This has not been seen by us for B. obtusus, although we have seen this colour pattern for Afghan B. asiaticus .</p><p>Third, based on a description of material from two sites identified as B. asiaticus by Reinig (1940) (prior to Richards’ description of B. obtusus), Tkalců (1969) suggested that there might also be a black-tailed colour pattern of B. obtusus, with a colour pattern resembling of B. (Subterraneobombus) melanurus Lepeletier, 1835 (thoracic dorsum and T1‒2 yellow, T3‒6 black). This material was described by Tkalců as most likely lost. This colour pattern has not been seen by us, although we have seen this colour pattern for Afghan B. asiaticus .</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC26256D4EDDEAFA08FE37FCE8	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC26226D43DD4CFC3BFD82F983.text	FE5D87EC26226D43DD4CFC3BFD82F983.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) tescorum Williams & An & Byvaltsev & Jonghe & Huang & Mei & Monfared & Orr & Raina & Streinzer 2026	<div><p>8. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) tescorum Williams nom. nov. et stat. rev.</p><p>urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: E2A94219-04F9-43C9-9F8A-EF80E36FFF78</p><p>Figs 1, 7, 9, 49‒51, 97</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) regeli [?Forma] [= subsp.] miniatocaudatus Vogt, 1911: 61, not of Vogt, 1909: 56 (= B. soroeensis (Fabricius, 1777)) .</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) regeli Ab. miniatocaudatus ‒ Vogt 1909: 50 footnote 1, infrasubspecific. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) asiaticus ‒ Williams 1991: 87, (in part) misidentification.</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens body length 17‒20 mm, worker 14 mm. Colour pattern with the hair beneath the base of the hind wing black, thoracic dorsum varying from either dull yellow with a narrow black band between the wing bases to almost entirely black, metasomal T2 varying from either dorsally with at least a few black hairs intermixed along the posterior margin and in the posterior lateral quarter with no black along the midline to predominantly black, T4‒5 pinkish-orange (Figs 49‒50). Morphology with the oculo-malar area anteriorly only sparsely covered with small to medium punctures scattered irregularly; clypeus in the anterior lateral corners with a large patch of large punctures spaced by their own breadths with a dense patch of many small and medium punctures between them; antennal A3 length 3× greatest breadth; ocello-ocular area with a broad band of dense fine punctures along the inner eye margin, this band along its inner edge with a line of medium and large punctures; hind basitarsus outer surface with short branched hairs not especially dense and partly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are partly obscured; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a raised boss.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 16 mm. Colour pattern with the hair on the head black except on the clypeus yellow and the vertex with a few yellow hairs intermixed, side of the thorax yellow, thoracic dorsum dull yellow with a narrow black band between the wing bases, legs black with some yellow, metasomal T1‒2 yellow, T2 dorsally usually with at least a few black hairs along the posterior margin and in the posterior lateral quarter but no black along the midline, T4‒6 pinkish-orange (Fig. 51). Morphology with the eye greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by 1× the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a deep concave indentation; gonocoxa from the dorsal aspect distally narrower than adjacent spatha, gonostylus distal lobe approximately square, volsella posterior to the gonostylus narrowed and angled inwards towards the body midline, volsella beyond the gonostylus nearly parallel-sided and consistently just broader than its breadth between the distal posterior corners, penis-valve head on its inner side ventrally at the base without a projecting angle, this angle only marked dorsally (Fig. 97).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) regeli [subsp.] miniatocaudatus (by monotypy: Williams 1991) MONGOLIA • ♂; “ Septentrionalis ”; Naturalis (examined PW).</p><p>Material examined</p><p>MONGOLIA • 1 ♂; Hovd, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=91.6496&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=46.9676" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 91.6496/lat 46.9676)">Tsenkher</a>; 46.9676° N, 91.6496° E; 9 Aug. 2014; D. Altanchimeg leg.; BOLD no.: 6880A07 (COI); DA, SB094 • 1 ♀ (queen); Bayan Ölgiy, Bulgan <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=91.3667&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=46.5833" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 91.3667/lat 46.5833)">River</a>; 46.5833° N, 91.3667° E; 26 Jul. 1992; A. Culverwell leg.; BOLD no.: 6880D05 (COI); PW, SB066 .</p><p>RUSSIA ‒ Tuva • 1 ♀ (queen); Kaa-Khem, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=94.7869&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=51.709" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 94.7869/lat 51.709)">Mt Apedek</a>; 51.7090° N, 94.7869° E; 16‒17 Aug. 2010; Y. Danilov leg.; BOLD no.: 6880E03 (COI); PW, SB076 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>North Asian montane species ‒ North Asia: RUSSIA: Tuva, Altai (Republic); MONGOLIA. (AB, Naturalis, NHMUK, PW.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee and the male antenna is strongly elongated, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the “racing” behaviour described for “ B. asiaticus ” (actually B. longiceps stat. rev.) with these morphological characteristics by Williams (1991).</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>Note 1 on the name B. regeli ?Forma miniatocaudatus Vogt 1911: 61 . Vogt (1911) named a taxon “ Sb. regeli miniatocaudatus ”, although he gave no explicit reference connecting this name as an indication of his earlier use of a similar name that as an ‘Ab.’[erration] was clearly of infrasubspecific in rank (Vogt 1909, see Note 3 below). The 1911 name can be considered as a new proposal at a new status and includes a minimal description to distinguish it from B. vorticosus (= B. niveatus): B. regeli is distinguished from B. vorticosus by its consistently longer hair and black pleurae; and B. regeli s. str. is distinguished from the taxon miniatocaudatus by the latter having the hair of the “Kaudalsegmenten” (tail) red rather than white. The nomenclatural rank of the taxon miniatocaudatus Vogt (1911) is not specified explicitly, although in a section on “Neue Hummelformen” and as a trinomen it can by default be considered to be of subspecific rank (ICZN 1999: Article 45.6). Vogt (1911) writes that red-tailed individuals (taxon miniatocaudatus) never occur in the “Siebenstromgebiet” [Semirechye] region of Central Asia, implying that it is geographically restricted, which is consistent with subspecific status in the sense of ICZN (see also the comments on type material below), making it an available name. However, while the name miniatocaudatus Vogt (1911) may be available, it cannot be the valid name for a bumblebee species because it is a junior homonym in Bombus of B. soroeensis var. [= subsp.] miniatocaudatus Vogt, 1909 (Vogt 1911: 50 footnote 1 states that he intends “ Varietas geographica ” to be equivalent to subspecies in rank; this “variety” is interpreted as having subspecific status because it is also described as regionally restricted: ICZN 1999: Article 45.6.4). Therefore, a new replacement name (not a description of a new species) is required for the taxon miniatocaudatus Vogt (1911) in the subgenus Sibiricobombus (see Note 3 and the comments on type material below).</p><p>Note 2 on the replacement name for the name B. regeli ?Forma miniatocaudatus Vogt, 1911: 61 . Because B. regeli miniatocaudatus Vogt, 1911 is a junior homonym in the genus Bombus of B. (Kallobombus) soroeensis subsp. miniatocaudatus Vogt, 1909, the replacement name B. tescorum nom. nov. et stat. rev. is proposed here (ICZN 1999: Article 60.3) in order to reduce the confusion that is likely to follow if the name miniatocaudatus Vogt, 1911 in the subgenus Sibiricobombus were to be propagated in the literature. The replacement name ‘ tescorum ’ (from a meaning of rough or barren regions, wastes, or deserts: thanks to I. Beavis pers. com.) describes what is known of the hilly dry steppe habitat of this species. Vogt (1909) named two taxa “ miniatocaudatus ”, a name he used in both cases for red-tailed colour patterns (also in part replaced by more extensive black?). The name for a taxon in the subgenus Sibiricobombus was described in the category of ‘Ab.’, which is specifically given infrasubspecific status by the ICZN (1999: Article 45.6.2).</p><p>Note 3 on the type of B. regeli ?Forma miniatocaudatus Vogt 1911: 61: Vogt (1911) did not designate a holotype or a series of syntypes. However, Vogt (1909) specified that he had a single male with the colour pattern of the taxon miniatocaudatus in the subgenus Sibiricobombus from Central Asia. Williams (1991) examined a single male in the Vogt collection at the Naturalis, Leiden, that agrees with Vogt’s descriptions of the taxon miniatocaudatus in the subgenus Sibiricobombus from 1911 and carries a hand-written red label “ regeli =Gruppe / miniatocaudatus / Type” and a label Mongolia “Septentrionalis”. This specimen is regarded as a syntype of miniatocaudatus Vogt, 1911 .</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. tescorum nom. nov. et stat. rev. here supports it as a species separate from B. asiaticus, B. falsificus stat. rev., B. longiceps stat. rev., and B. obtusus, presenting evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys). That the asiaticus -group might consist of a series of species has been anticipated by Reinig (1940).</p><p>Our concept of the species B. tescorum nom. nov. et stat. rev. is considerably narrower than the application of the name miniatocaudatus Vogt, 1911 by some authors, which has included yellow-banded and orange-tailed individuals belonging to other species of the asiaticus -group, especially of B. falsificus stat. rev. (Richards 1930; Wang 1982) and of some B. asiaticus (Richards 1930) . Reinig (1934) distinguished “dem mongolischen miniatocaudatus Vogt ” from his taxon “ B. regeli rufocaudatus ” in the Pamir (= B. asiaticus) by the lighter (yellow) bands of the latter.</p><p>A queen of B. tescorum nom. nov. et stat. rev. from Tuva (Russia, SB076) shows almost complete replacement of the yellow hair with black, with only some dull yellow hair remaining intermixed in a transverse band in the middle of T2.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC26226D43DD4CFC3BFD82F983	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC262F6D40DD85F98DFA96FE51.text	FE5D87EC262F6D40DD85F98DFA96FE51.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) longiceps Smith 1878	<div><p>9. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) longiceps Smith, 1878 stat. rev.</p><p>Figs 1, 7, 9, 52‒71, 98</p><p>BOMBUS LONGICEPS Smith, 1878: 8 . Stat. rev.</p><p>Sibiricobombus flavodorsalis Skorikov, 1933: 248, not of Franklin, 1913 (= B. pensylvanicus (DeGeer, 1773)) . Syn. nov.</p><p>Sibiricobombus oshanini Skorikov, 1933: 248 . Syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) huangcens Wang, 1982: 430 . Syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) asiaticus ‒ Williams 1991: 87, (in part) misidentification.</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens body length 17‒20 mm, workers 11‒15 mm. Colour pattern with the hair of the head and legs black, beneath the base of the hind wing bases either usually yellow or white or rarely black, thoracic dorsum either bright yellow or bright yellow with a black band between the wing bases or white with a black band between the wing bases, metasomal T2 either part yellow or part white, with black at least intermixed along the midline, T3 black, T4‒5 either usually predominantly orange or rarely white or black (Figs 52‒61). Morphology with the oculo-malar area anteriorly only sparsely covered with small to medium punctures scattered irregularly; clypeus with the anterior lateral corners with a large patch of large punctures spaced by their own breadths with a dense patch of many small and medium punctures between them; antennal A3 length 3 × greatest breadth; ocello-ocular area with a broad band of dense fine punctures along the inner eye margin, this band along its inner edge without medium and large punctures; hind tibia outer corbicular surface in its upper proximal half coarsely sculptured and matt, so that reflections are much interrupted by the prominent sculpturing; hind basitarsus outer surface with short branched hairs not especially dense and partly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are partly obscured; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a raised boss.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 13‒17 mm Colour pattern with the hair on the head black except on the clypeus either yellow or white, hair of the side of the thorax either yellow or white, thoracic dorsum either bright yellow or bright yellow with a black band between the wing bases or white with a black band between the wing bases, hair of the legs predominantly black, metasomal T 2 in part either yellow or white or black, T4‒6 either usually predominantly orange or rarely black (Figs 62‒71). Morphology with the eye greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by 1× the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a deep concave indentation; gonocoxa from the dorsal aspect distally as broad as adjacent spatha, gonostylus distal lobe approximately square, volsella posterior to the gonostylus narrowed and angled inwards towards the body midline, volsella beyond the gonostylus narrowing to less than its breadth between the distal posterior corners, penis-valve head on its inner side ventrally at the base without a projecting angle, this angle only marked dorsally, penis-valve shaft at its proximal base on its outer side with a deeply marked ‘S’-shaped step, penis-valve head recurved section nearly straight posteriorly at the base (Fig. 98).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Lectotype of Bombus longiceps (by designation of Frison 1935: 340) INDIA • ♀ (large worker, not a queen); Kashmir, Ladakh Leh; [Aug. to Sep.]; F. Stoliczka leg.; NZSI (examined PW) .</p><p>Syntypes of Sibiricobombus flavodorsalis INDIA • ♀♀ (queens), Kashmir, Ladakh, Suru valley; ZIN (type not seen but identity not in doubt) .</p><p>Syntypes of Sibiricobombus oshanini INDIA • ♀♀ (queens), 1 ♂, Kashmir; Ladakh, Nubra valley; ZIN (type not seen but identity not in doubt) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) huangcens (by original designation) CHINA • ♀ (queen); Xizang, Zanda; 28 Jun. 1976; F. Huang leg.; IZCAS (examined PW) .</p><p>Material examined</p><p>CHINA ‒ Xizang • 2 ♀♀ (workers); Burang, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=81.2523&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=30.206" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 81.2523/lat 30.206)">Lalongba</a>; 30.2060° N, 81.2523° E; 22 Jul. 2018; IZCAS, SB093 /BB24, SB090 /BB02 .</p><p>INDIA ‒ Himachal Pradesh • 1 ♀ (queen), 2 ♂♂; <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=1.688&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=31.6" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 1.688/lat 31.6)">Saichu Nalla</a>; 31.6000° N, 78.2670° E; 8 Sep. 1986; A. Hutchings leg.; BOLD nos.: 6880D12, 6880E01, 6880E02 (COI); PW, SB073 to SB075. – Kashmir &amp; Jammu • 1 ♀ (queen); Zanskar, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=76.8871&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=33.4746" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 76.8871/lat 33.4746)">Padum</a>; 33.4746° N, 76.8871° E; 30 Jul. 2007; R. Raina leg.; BOLD no.: 1552D10 (COI); RR, SB050 • 1 ♀ (queen); Kashmir, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=74.7171&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=34.6464" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 74.7171/lat 34.6464)">Kazalwan</a>; 34.6464° N, 74.7171° E; 19 Jun. 2007; R. Raina leg.; BOLD no.: 1552E03 (COI); RR, SB046 • 2 ♀♀ (queens); Kashmir, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=74.8942&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=34.6552" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 74.8942/lat 34.6552)">Shah Pora</a>; 34.6552° N, 74.8942° E; 28 Jun. 2009; R. Raina leg.; BOLD nos: 1552D07, 1552D09 (COI); RR, SB047, SB051 • 1 ♀ (queen); Kashmir, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=75.4366&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=34.2648" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 75.4366/lat 34.2648)">Baltal</a>; 34.2648° N, 75.4366° E; 14 Jul. 2008; R. Raina leg.; BOLD no.: 1552D06 (COI); RR, SB048 • 1 ♀ (worker); Kashmir, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=74.3856&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=34.0548" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 74.3856/lat 34.0548)">Gulmarg</a>; 34.0548° N, 74.3856° E; Aug. 1985; P. Williams leg.; BOLD no.: 6880C05 (COI); PW, SB054 .</p><p>PAKISTAN • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=75.6444&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=35.2903" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 75.6444/lat 35.2903)">Skardu</a>; 35.2903° N, 75.6444° E; 31 Aug. 2017; S. Jaffar leg.; BOLD no.: 1552E12 (COI); SJ, SB049 • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=72.52&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=36.0756" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 72.52/lat 36.0756)">Hindu Kush</a>, Shanduz Pass; 36.0756° N, 72.5200° E; 5 Jul. 2004; V. Gurko leg.; BOLD no.: 6880F07 (COI); MM, SB080 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>West Himalayan species ‒ East Asia: AFGHANISTAN; PAKISTAN; INDIA: Kashmir &amp; Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim; NEPAL; CHINA: Xizang. (IZCAS, NHMUK, NKME, PW, SMF, ZIN, ZSI.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>The male eye is greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee and the male antenna is strongly elongated, which is related to the male mate-searching behaviour described for this species (under the misidentified name of B. asiaticus) as “racing behaviour” by Williams (1991).</p><p>Uniquely (as far as is known), males of this species were found to congregate in groups of up to 10 individuals among grass roots to spend the night torpid, with individually numbered males switching between clusters on successive nights (although this could be the result of disturbance) (Williams 1991: 23).</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. longiceps stat. rev. here agrees with the recent interpretation of a species separate from B. asiaticus, B. falsificus stat. rev., B. obtusus, and B. tescorum nom. nov. et stat. rev. (Williams 2022a), presenting the details of evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys). That the asiaticus -group might consist of a series of species has been anticipated by Reinig (1940).</p><p>The taxa flavodorsalis and oshanini are re-descriptions of the taxon (yellow unbanded colour pattern) longiceps stat. rev.</p><p>The species-level coalescent in the COI gene (Fig. 1) also supports as conspecific the yellow-unbanded taxon longiceps s. str., the yellow-banded taxon huangcens, and the white-banded taxon (callophenax of authors other than Cockerell (1917) (= B. avinoviellus Skorikov, 1914, see Williams et al. 2016)). Sculpturing of the female hind tibia is slightly more coarse and the wings are darker in Kashmir white-banded bees than in yellow unbanded Ladakh bees. Conspecificity is corroborated by their clypeal sculpturing (see the keys). Williams (1991: 115–118) also described how in high mountain passes (near Nigagar and Lal Pani) of the Great Himalaya in Kashmir, where “white-banded” (Kashmir valley) and “yellow-unbanded” (Ladakh) populations meet and produce apparent intermediate colour patterns (and also show some black-tailed colour patterns), the frequencies of states for two out of three colour-pattern characters (for presence/absence of a black thoracic band; and tail red/black) in the haploid males predicted the frequencies in the diploid females (the prediction failed for white/yellow bands). These predictions would be expected to hold if there were simple bi-allelic coding with simple dominance. Crucially, this is consistent with the two regional populations interbreeding as parts of a single species.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC262F6D40DD85F98DFA96FE51	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC262C6D47DDAFFE51FE6CFA66.text	FE5D87EC262C6D47DDAFFE51FE6CFA66.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) falsificus (Richards 1930) Richards 1930	<div><p>10. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) falsificus Richards, 1930 stat. rev.</p><p>Figs 1, 7, 9, 72‒74, 99</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) miniatocaudatus race [= subsp.] falsificus Richards, 1930: 652 . Stat. rev. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) heicens Wang, 1982: 430 . Syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) asiaticus ‒ Williams 1991: 87, (in part) misidentification.</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females Queens body length 17‒18 mm, workers 12‒15 mm. Colour pattern with the hair beneath the base of the hind wing black, thoracic dorsum yellow with a narrow black band between the wing bases, lower side of the thorax and legs black, metasomal T1‒2 dorsally entirely yellow without black hairs even in the posterior lateral quarter, T4‒5 orange (Fig. 72). Morphology with the oculo-malar area anteriorly only sparsely covered with small to medium punctures scattered irregularly; clypeus with the anterior lateral corners with a small patch of large punctures spaced by their own breadths with only a very few scattered small punctures between them; antennal A3 length 3 × greatest breadth; hind basitarsus outer surface with short branched hairs not especially dense, but partly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are partly obscured; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a raised boss.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 15‒16 mm. Colour pattern with the hair on the head black except on the clypeus yellow, thoracic dorsum yellow with a narrow black band between the wing bases, metasomal T2 dorsally entirely yellow without black hairs even in the posterior lateral quarter, T4‒6 orange (Figs 73‒74). Morphology with the eye greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by 1× the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a deep concave indentation; gonocoxa from the dorsal aspect distally as broad as adjacent spatha, gonostylus distal lobe approximately square, volsella posterior to the gonostylus narrowed and angled inwards towards the body midline, beyond the gonostylus narrowing to less than its breadth between the distal posterior corners, penis-valve head on its inner side ventrally at the base without a projecting angle, this angle only marked dorsally, penis-valve shaft at its proximal base on its outer side with only a shallowly marked ‘S’-shaped step (Fig. 99).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) miniatocaudatus race [= subsp.] falsificus (by original designation) CHINA • ♀ (queen); Xizang, Tingri; 4 Jul. 1924; R. Hingston leg.; NHMUK (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) heicens (by original designation) CHINA • ♀ (queen), Xizang, Rutog; 26 Aug. 1976; F. Huang leg.; IZCAS (examined PW) .</p><p>Material examined</p><p>CHINA ‒ Qinghai • 1 ♂; Yakou, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=98.7751&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=36.6821" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 98.7751/lat 36.6821)">Nangguanxiu</a>; 36.6821° N, 98.7751° E; 30 Aug. 2010; P. Williams leg.; BOLD no.: 6876C02 (COI); PW, SB052 • 2 ♀♀ (workers); ridge S of Caka; 36.6671° N, 98.7737° E; 9 Aug. 2013; P. Williams leg.; BOLD nos.: 6880D01, 6880D02 (COI); PW, SB062, SB063 • 2 ♀♀ (workers); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=94.052&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=35.692" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 94.052/lat 35.692)">Kunlun Shan</a> pass; 35.6920° N, 94.0520° E; 13 Aug. 2013; P. Williams leg.; BOLD nos.: 6880D03, 6880D04; PW, SB064, SB065 . – Xizang • 1 ♀ (queen); Mapang Yongcuo, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=81.3662&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=30.7151" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 81.3662/lat 30.7151)">Sere</a>; 30.7151° N, 81.3662° E; 23 Jul. 2018; IZCAS, SB091 /BB20 • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=80.4848&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=32.3551" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 80.4848/lat 32.3551)">Xindisang</a>; 32.3551° N, 80.4848° E; 29 Jul. 2018; IZCAS, SB092 /BB21</p><p>Distribution</p><p>East Tibetan Plateau species ‒ East Asia: CHINA: Xizang, Qinghai, Gansu. (IAR, IZCAS, NHMUK, PW.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee and the male antenna is strongly elongated, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the “racing” behaviour described for “ B. asiaticus ” (actually B. longiceps stat. rev.) with these morphological characteristics by Williams (1991). Male perching and “racing” behaviour has been observed on one occasion in Qinghai (PW).</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>Note on the name B. miniatocaudatus race falsificus Richards, 1930: 652: although Richards (1930) uses the term “Subsp.” as well as “var.” and “race”, he states that the taxon falsificus is characteristic of a particular geographical area, so this nominal taxon is therefore deemed to be of subspecific rank (ICZN 1999: Article 45.6.4) (Williams 1991).</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. falsificus stat. rev. here agrees with the recent interpretation of a species separate from B. asiaticus, B. longiceps stat. rev., B. obtusus, and B. tescorum nom. nov. et stat. rev. (Williams 2022a), presenting evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys). That the asiaticus -group might consist of a series of species was anticipated by Reinig (1940).</p><p>The colour pattern of this species shows little variation. The taxon heicens is a re-description of the taxon falsificus stat. rev.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC262C6D47DDAFFE51FE6CFA66	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
FE5D87EC262B6D44DDF8F9A1FAF1FE73.text	FE5D87EC262B6D44DDF8F9A1FAF1FE73.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Bombus (Sibiricobombus) asiaticus Morawitz 1875	<div><p>11. Bombus (Sibiricobombus) asiaticus Morawitz, 1875</p><p>Figs 1, 7, 9, 75‒89, 100</p><p>Bombus hortorum var. [= subsp.] asiatica [ = asiaticus] Morawitz in Fedtschenko, 1875: 4. BOMBUS BIZONATUS Smith, 1878: 9. Syn. nov.</p><p>Bombus Regeli Morawitz, 1880: 337 .</p><p>Bombus regeli var. [= subsp.] pamirensis Friese, 1913: 87.</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) regeli subsp. diversocaudatus Reinig, 1932: 257 .</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) flavicollis Wang, 1985: 163 .</p><p>Bombus (Sibiricobombus) asiaticus [subsp.] baichengensis Wang, 1985: 164.</p><p>Bombus regelii ‒ von Dalla Torre 1896: 544, unjustified emendation.</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Females</p><p>Queens body length 16‒21 mm, workers 9‒18 mm. Colour pattern with the hair of the head black and the legs predominantly black, beneath the base of the hind wing either usually yellow or rarely black, thoracic dorsum bright yellow usually with a narrow black band between the wing bases, metasomal T2 either usually nearly entirely yellow without black hairs intermixed along the midline or rarely extensively black, T3 black, T4 either white or buff or orange or black, T5 either white or buff or orange (Figs 75‒82). Morphology with the oculo-malar area anteriorly only sparsely covered with small to medium punctures scattered irregularly; clypeus with the anterior lateral corners with a large patch of large punctures spaced by their own breadths with a dense patch of many small and medium punctures between them; antennal A3 length 3× greatest breadth; ocello-ocular area with a broad band of dense fine punctures along the inner eye margin, this band along its inner edge without medium and large punctures; hind tibia outer corbicular surface in its upper proximal half weakly sculptured and smooth, so that the shining reflections are scarcely interrupted by the sculpturing; hind basitarsus outer surface with short branched hairs not especially dense but partly overlapping so that reflections from the outer surface are partly obscured; (in large individuals) T6 subapically medially with a raised boss.</p><p>Males</p><p>Body length 13‒18 mm. Colour pattern with the hair of the head and the legs either yellow or black, the hair beneath the base of the hind wing either usually yellow or rarely black, thoracic dorsum either bright yellow or bright yellow with a black band between the wing bases or predominantly black with a yellow anterior band, metasomal T1‒2 either usually nearly entirely yellow without black hairs intermixed along the midline or rarely extensively or entirely black, T3 black, T4‒6 either white or orange or black (Figs 83‒89). Morphology with the eye greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee, from the dorsal aspect the eye separated from the lateral ocellus by 1 × the ocellar breadth; S6 with the posterior margin in the middle with a deep concave indentation; gonocoxa from the dorsal aspect distally as broad as adjacent spatha, gonostylus distal lobe approximately square, volsella posterior to the gonostylus narrowed and angled inwards towards the body midline, beyond the gonostylus narrowing to less than its breadth between the distal posterior corners, penis-valve shaft at its proximal base on its outer side with a deeply marked ‘S’-shaped step, penis-valve head on its inner side ventrally at the base without a projecting angle, this angle only marked dorsally, penis-valve head recurved section nearly straight posteriorly at the base (Fig. 100).</p><p>Type material</p><p>Lectotype of Bombus hortorum var. [= subsp.] asiaticus (by designation of Williams, 1991) TAJIKISTAN • ♀ (worker); “Tschiburgan”; 26 Jun. 1871; ZMMU (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus bizonatus (by monotypy) CHINA • ♀ (queen); Xinjiang, “No locality indicated” [mountains west of Yarkant?]; F. Stoliczka leg.; NZSI (examined PW) .</p><p>Syntype of Bombus regeli (lectotype designation by Podbolotskaya unpubl.) CHINA • 1 ♀ (queen); Xinjiang, near “Kuldsha” [Yining]; E. Regel leg.; ZIN (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus regeli var. [= subsp.] pamirensis (by monotypy) TAJIKISTAN • ♂; “Pamir-Hochlande”; O. Staudinger leg.; unknown repository (type not seen but identity not in doubt) .</p><p>Syntypes of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) regeli subsp. diversocaudatus TAJIKISTAN • 13 ♀♀; ‘Pamir-darja-Gebiet’; Aug. 1928; W. Reinig leg.; unknown repository (types not seen but identity not in doubt) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) flavicollis (by original designation) CHINA • ♀ (queen); Xinjiang, Zhaosu; 24 Jul. 1978; Y. Han leg.; IZCAS (examined PW) .</p><p>Holotype of Bombus (Sibiricobombus) asiaticus [subsp.] baichengensis (by original designation) CHINA • ♀ (queen); Xinjiang, Baicheng; 19 May 1978; X. Zhang leg.; IZCAS (examined PW) .</p><p>Material examined</p><p>KAZAKHSTAN • 1 ♀ (worker); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=74.01&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=43.01" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 74.01/lat 43.01)">Korday</a>; 43.01° N, 74.01° E; 18 Jun. 2003; BOLD no.: 1549F06 (COI); KUK, SB045 • 1 ♂; <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=80.2188&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=43.3309" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 80.2188/lat 43.3309)">Ketmen Mts</a>; [43.3309° N, 80.2188° E]; 14 Jun. 1998; V. Gurko leg.; BOLD no.: 6880F11 (COI); MM, SB084 .</p><p>KYRGYZSTAN • 1 ♂; <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=71.9314&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=41.4532" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 71.9314/lat 41.4532)">Ketmen Mts</a>, Tujuk; [41.4532° N, 71.9314° E]; 6 Jul. 1999; V. Gurko leg.; BOLD no.: 6880F08 (COI); PW, SB081 • 1 ♀ (queen); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=72.0&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=42.1" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 72.0/lat 42.1)">Sari-Tzelek</a>; [42.10° N, 72.00° E]; 4 Jun. 1995; BOLD no.: 6880F09 (COI); MM, SB082 .</p><p>TAJIKISTAN • 2 ♀♀ (queens); E of Khorog; 37.4814° N, 71.5938° E; 3 Jun. 2009; L. Best leg.; BOLD nos: 1552H01, 1552H02 (COI); PW, SB005, SB006 • 1 ♀ (worker); E of Khorog; 37.4814° N, 71.5938° E; 16 Jun. 2009; L. Best leg.; BOLD no.: 6880D10 (COI); PW, SB071 • 1 ♀ (queen); E of Khorog; 37.4814° N, 71.5938° E; 17 Jun. 2009; L. Best leg.; BOLD no.: 6880D09 (COI); PW, SB070 • 1 ♀ (queen); <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=72.6968&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=37.6968" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 72.6968/lat 37.6968)">Okmamad</a>; 37.6968° N, 72.6968° E; 25 Jun. 2009; L. Best leg.; BOLD no.: 6880D11 (COI); PW, SB072 .</p><p>Distribution</p><p>Central Asian montane species ‒ Central Asia: KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN, TAJIKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, CHINA: Xinjiang. (IAR, IZCAS, NHMUK, NZSI, PW, UMons, ZIN, ZMMU.)</p><p>Behaviour</p><p>Because the male eye is greatly enlarged relative to the eye of a female bumblebee and the male antenna is strongly elongated, the male mate-searching behaviour is expected to be similar to the “racing” behaviour described for “ B. asiaticus ” (actually B. longiceps stat. rev.) with these morphological characteristics by Williams (1991).</p><p>Taxonomic remarks</p><p>Note on the name B. hortorum var. asiatica Morawitz in Fedtschenko 1875: 4: mandatory change in an incorrect original spelling to asiaticus (Williams 1991) .</p><p>The taxon concept of the species B. asiaticus here agrees with the recent interpretation of a species separate from B. falsificus stat. rev., B. longiceps stat. rev., B. obtusus, and B. tescorum nom. nov. et stat. rev. (Williams 2022a), presenting evidence that: (1) our PTP analysis supports independent species-level coalescents in the COI gene (Fig. 1); corroborated by (2) diagnostic morphological character states (see the keys). That the asiaticus -group might consist of a series of species has been anticipated by Reinig (1940).</p><p>The species-level coalescent in the COI gene (Fig. 1) also supports as conspecific the white-tailed taxon asiaticus s. str. and the orange-tailed taxon pamirensis. Conspecificity of these taxa is corroborated by their morphology (see the keys). In addition, (1) some individuals (especially from Afghanistan) have the black band between the wing bases (‘inter-alar’ band) much reduced or replaced by yellow; (2) some have the pale tail colour replaced by black; and (3) some (especially from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan) have the yellow bands reduced by replacement of yellow hair with black. Colour-pattern variation in Afghanistan and the Pamir is described in more detail by Reinig (1930, 1932, 1940).</p><p>The taxon flavicollis is a re-description of the taxon (colour pattern) pamirensis and the taxon baichengensis is a re-description of the taxon (colour pattern) asiaticus s. str. (Williams 1998).</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FE5D87EC262B6D44DDF8F9A1FAF1FE73	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Williams, Paul H.;An, Jiandong;Byvaltsev, Alexandr;Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De;Huang, Jiaxing;Mei, Maurizio;Monfared, Alireza;Orr, Michael C.;Raina, Rifat;Streinzer, Martin	Williams, Paul H., An, Jiandong, Byvaltsev, Alexandr, Jonghe, Guillaume Ghisbain Roland De, Huang, Jiaxing, Mei, Maurizio, Monfared, Alireza, Orr, Michael C., Raina, Rifat, Streinzer, Martin (2026): The steppe bumblebees of the subgenus Sibiricobombus revised world-wide from species’ gene coalescents and morphology despite numts (Hymenoptera, Apidae, genus Bombus). European Journal of Taxonomy 1041: 1-59, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2026.1041.3199, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/3199/14203
