Integrative taxonomy of an arctic bumblebee species complex highlights a new cryptic species (Apidae: Bombus)

• Published in: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
• Main Authors: Martinet, Baptiste, Lecocq, Thomas, Brasero, Nicolas, Gérard, Maxence, Urbanova, Klara, Valterová, Irena, Gjershaug, Jan Ove, Michez, Denis, Rasmont, Pierre
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Zoologie Mons, University of Mons Belgium (UMONS), Unité de Recherches Animal et Fonctionnalités des Produits Animaux (URAFPA), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Lorraine (UL), Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU), Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB / CAS), Czech Academy of Sciences Prague (CAS), Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: [SDV.SA.ZOO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Zootechny; [SDV.SA.STP]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Sciences and technics of fishery; [SDV.BID.EVO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; [SDV.BA.ZI]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Invertebrate Zoology; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.SA.SPA]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Animal production studies; [SDV.GEN.GPO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics/Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]; [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Ecosystems; [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics; Phylogenetics and taxonomy; Arctic; Yukon; Fennoscandia; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-02501083; https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-02501083/document; https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-02501083/file/Martinet%20et%20al_lapponicus_Manuscript_R3_without%20tracking.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz041

International audience Bumblebees have been the focus of much research, but the taxonomy of many species groups is still unclear, especially for circumpolar species. Delimiting species based on multisource datasets provides a solution to overcome current systematic issues of closely related populations. Here, we use an integrative taxonomic approach based on new genetic and eco-chemical datasets to resolve the taxonomic status of Bombus lapponicus and Bombus sylvicola. Our results support the conspecific status of B. lapponicus and B. sylvicola and that the low gradual divergence around the Arctic Circle between Fennoscandia and Alaska does not imply speciation in this species complex. Therefore, based on our molecular and morphological analyses, we propose to assign them subspecific status: Bombus lapponicus lapponicus from Fennoscandia and West Siberia and Bombus lapponicus sylvicola comb. nov. from Alaska and Yukon. In addition, our analyses reveal a cryptic species in the B. lapponicus complex from Alaska, which we describe here as new: Bombus (Pyrobombus) interacti sp. nov.