Bombus magnus Vogt, 1911

magnus Vogt, 1911:56, examined
flavoscutellaris G & W Trautmann, 1915:96
luteostriatus Krüger, 1954:272, examined
11 names

TAXONOMIC STATUS: B. lucorum and B. magnus have been regarded both as conspecific (Vogt, 1911; Pekkarinen, 1979) and as separate species (Krüger, 1951; Løken, 1973; Tkalcu, 1974; Rasmont, 1984). However, specialists disagreed among themselves on the precise thresholds (along an apparent continuum of morphological variation) for diagnosing them (Williams, 2000 [link]). B. magnus has therefore sometimes been regarded as part of an unresolved complex (Williams et al., 2009) until it becomes possible to recognise and diagnose the species reliably, with the aim of minimising the inevitable but misleading misidentifications.

COI barcodes (Bertsch et al., 2005; Williams et al., 2012 [pdf]) support the interpretation that B. magnus is a species separate from B. lucorum. However, it remains difficult to distinguish from related species reliably on the basis of morphology alone (Rasmont et al., 1986; Carolan et al., 2012 [pdf]).

DISTRIBUTION: Palaearctic Region.