Bombus (Paraelectrobombus) patriciae (Nel & Petrulevicius , 2003) Nel & Petrulevicius, 2003

Dehon, Manuel, Engel, Michael S., Gerard, Maxence, Aytekin, A. Murat, Ghisbain, Guillaume, Williams, Paul H., Rasmont, Pierre & Michez, Denis, 2019, Morphometric analysis of fossil bumble bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Bombini) reveals their taxonomic affinities, ZooKeys 891, pp. 71-118 : 71

Bombus (Paraelectrobombus) patriciae (Nel & Petrulevicius, 2003) comb. nov.

Holotype.

Female. MNHN-LP-R. 11187 (coll. Paichelier 1977), deposited in the Laboratoire de Palaeontologie, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France. The type specimen was located, examined, and revised ( Figs 1D , 3D ).

Type strata and locality.

Oligocene-Miocene boundary, 22.5 Ma, volcano-sedimentary paleolake deposit, BesKonak Basin, Anatolia, Turkey.

Diagnosis.

Owing to monotypy, the diagnosis for the species is identical to that of the subgenus (vide supra).

Description.

Body poorly preserved and covered with long setae; forewing membrane hyaline and covered with small pilosity, venation similar to that of extant species of Bombus s. l.; forewing length 9.0 mm, maximum width approximately 3.4 mm as preserved; basal vein slightly curved at base, and slightly basad cu-a, length 1.9 mm; prestigma length 0.3 mm, width 0.2 mm; pterostigma length 0.6 mm, width 0.3 mm; marginal cell length 2.8 mm, width 0.6 mm, with apex narrowly rounded and detached from margin of forewing; 1st abscissa of Rs straight; 2nd abscissa of Rs curved basally in its last posterior part; r-rs almost straight; 3Rs smaller than r-rs; 4Rs approximately as long as r-rs; Rs+M straight and longer than r-rs; three submarginal cells of approximately equivalent size; first submarginal cell length 1.4 mm (as measured from origin of Rs+M to juncture of r-rs and Rs), width 0.6 mm (as measured from Rs+M to pterostigma); second submarginal cell length 1.1 mm (as measured from juncture of Rs+M and M to juncture of Rs and 1rs-m), width 0.6 mm (as measured from midpoint on M between 1m-cu and 1rs-m to juncture of r-rs and Rs); third submarginal cell length 1.0 mm (as measured from juncture of 1rs-m and M to juncture of M and 2rs-m), width 0.8 mm (as measured from juncture of M and 2m-cu to juncture of 2rs-m and Rs); 1rs-m almost straight; 2rs-m with anterior half curved apically; 1m-cu with anterior half curved apically, reaching M slightly before midlength between 2nd abscissa of Rs and 1rs-m; 2m-cu slightly curved near midpoint, reaching M basad 2rs-m; prosoma length 3.0 mm as preserved; mesosoma length 4.5 mm as preserved; metatibia without basal plate, length 2.2 mm, width 0.6 mm; corbicula with long setae; metabasitarsus length 2.0 mm; width 1.0 mm, with auricle at base; metasoma not preserved. The taphonomy of the specimen does not allow us to ascertain the presence or absence of a transector. See Nel and Petrulevičius (2003) for original description.

Comments.

There is only one specimen, the holotype MNHN-LP-R. 11197. The fossil was initially described as Paraelectrobombus patriciae within the extinct tribe Electrobombini by Nel and Petrulevičius (2003), and was described as a bombine-like species with a wing venation similar to those of Bombini and Electrobombini . However, these authors stated that it was not possible to determine its exact relationship relative to Bombini and Electrobombini owing to the lack of information on its body structures such as the pretarsal claws and arolia. Based on the specimen’s forewing shape affinities, Paralectrobombus is assuredly an extinct taxon of Bombini , and likely within the genus Bombus . Based on our results, we hypothesize that this group may be sister to extant Bombus or a stem group to Bombus .

Figures

Figure 1. Representative fossil bumble bees A Oligobombus cuspidatus (photograph by Antropov et al. (2014)) B Holotype of Calyptapis florissantensis (photograph by Manuel Dehon) C C. florissantensis (photograph by Talia S. Karim) D Bombus (Paraelectrobombus) patriciae (photograph by Gaelle Doitteau) E B. (Mendacibombus) beskonakensis (photograph by Gaelle Doitteau).

Figure 3. Forewing drawings of the fossil bumble bees studied herein. Some forewings were mirrored to enable comparison across all specimens A Oligobombus cuspidatus (mirrored) B Holotype of Calyptapis florissantensis (mirrored) C C. florissantensis D Bombus (Paraelectrobombus) patriciae (mirrored) E B. (Mendacibombus) beskonakensis F B. (Cullumanobombus) trophonius (mirrored) G B. (Cullumanobombus) randeckensis (mirrored) H B. vetustus I B. (Cullumanobombus) pristinus (mirrored) J B. (Melanobombus) cerdanyensis.