Bombus (Thoracobombus) laesus Morawitz

An, Jiandong, Williams, Paul H., Zhou, Bingfeng, Miao, Zhengying & Qi, Wenzhong, 2011, The bumblebees of Gansu, Northwest China (Hymenoptera, Apidae), Zootaxa 2865, pp. 1-36 : 11

14. Bombus (Thoracobombus) laesus Morawitz

( Fig. 17 )

Bombus laesus Morawitz, 1875:3 , syntype queen (lectotype by designation of P. Rasmont, in prep.) ZMMU examined. Kazakhstan.

Bombus Mocsáryi Kriechbaumer, 1877:253 , type not seen. Regarded as conspecific with Bombus laesus Morawitz by Dalla Torre (1896). Hungary.

Agrobombus (Laesobombus) laesus subsp. mocsàryi var. maculidorsis Skorikov, 1922:23 , not infrasubspecific after Panfilov, 1956:1328, syntype queen (lectotype by designation of Podbolotskaya, unpublished) ZISP examined. Synonymised provisionally with Bombus laesus Morawitz by Williams (1998), confirmed by Williams et al. (2009). Russia.

Bombus (Laesobombus) tianschanicus Panfilov, 1956:1327 , type not seen. Synonymised provisionally with Bombus laesus Morawitz by Williams (1998). Kyrgyzstan.

Taxonomy. For a discussion of the taxonomy of this species see Williams et al. (2009) and Williams (2011).

Material examined. 4 queens 31 workers 1 male (IAB).

Distribution in Gansu. Common at medium to high elevations of the eastern loess plateau and Qinghai- Tibetan plateau in the southwest ( Fig. 17 ); 10 localities between 1764 and 3472 m (IAB).

Distribution in China. Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Neimenggu, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia (IAB).

Forage plants. ASTERACEAE : Saussurea stella ; FABACEAE : Hedysarum gmelini , Medicago sativa ; GENTIAN- ACEAE: Gentiana sp.; LAMIACEAE : Caryopteris tangutica , Dracocephalum heterophyllum , Elsholtzia fruticosa ; RANUNCULACEAE : Aconitum gymnandrum , Delphinium grandiflorum .

Figures

FIGURE 4 – 21. Maps of Gansu showing the recorded presences of the species as black spots with county boundaries shown in grey.