Melaleucus

Категория: Виды шмелей
Отправил: Николай Шмелев

Melaleucus

Bombus melaleucus Handlirsch
melaleucus Handlirsch, 1888:228, examined
volucelloides Gribodo, 1892:119
melanoleucus Schulz, 1906:267, unjustified emendation

TAXONOMIC STATUS: Several of these nominal taxa have been treated as separate species.

B. volucelloides is closely similar to B. melaleucus, but has been considered to be a separate species (e.g. Milliron, 1973b; Asperen de Boer, 2007). B. vogti is also similar to B. volucelloides, and these two taxa have been considered both as conspecific (e.g. Franklin, 1913; Labougle, 1990) and as separate species (e.g. Milliron, 1973b; Asperen de Boer, 2007).

There is very little material available of the males in this group from South America, but the males of B. vogti are distinctly different in the morphology of the genitalia. B. nigrothoracicus seems more likely to be conspecific with B. vogti than with B. ecuadorius (see the comments on B. ecuadorius).

Thus B. melaleucus is interpreted here in a broad sense, to include much variation that is not yet well understood. While awaiting more evidence from critical studies of patterns of variation, I treat them initially as parts of a single variable species.

NOMENCLATURE: For this species, the oldest available name of which I am aware is B. melaleucus, which becomes the valid name. The name B. volucelloides has been in most common use for just part of this species. However, it seems premature to conserve B. volucelloides by suppressing B. melaleucus until the taxa are better understood, because the name B. melaleucus might yet be required for a separate species.

DISTRIBUTION: N Neotropical, W Neotropical Regions.

Представлены на:  Sun, 02-Jul-2017, 22:04