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Photo#1186930
Bombus at Devonian Botanical Garden - Bombus cryptarum

Bombus at Devonian Botanical Garden - Bombus cryptarum
Devon, Alberta, Canada
July 10, 2014
Is this Bombus moderatus - at the Devonian Botanical Garden near Edmonton, Alberta?

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

 
Bombus cryptarum
Bombus cryptarum is a British bumble bee. This is Alberta, Canada. I don't think it can be that species. I think it might be B. moderatus, which has been seen in Alberta. http://www.insectsofalberta.com/white-tailedbumblebee.htm

 
B. moderatus is a synonym of B. cryptarum
see: Williams, PH, et al. 2012. Unveiling cryptic species of the bumblebee subgenus Bombus s. str. worldwide with COI barcodes (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Systematics and Biodiversity 10(1):21-56.

PDF: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/bombus/Williams%26al12_Bombus.pdf

 
Bombus cryptarum
Thank you. This was interesting to me, very much as a non-entomologist, but someone who photographs a lot of bumble bees.

I did the reading: A phylogenetic framework for the North American bumblebee species of the subgenus Bombus sensu stricto Bombus affinis,B. franklini,B. moderatus, B. occidentalis &B. terricola based on mitochondrial DNA markers - authors ANDREAS BERTSCH, MARTIN HRABÉ DE ANGELIS and GERHARD K. H. PRZEMECK)

I was struck by the authors' last sentence in the section on M. moderatus: "Further investigations are needed to close the gap between North America and Europe and reveal which Asian taxa are available to link the North American B. moderatus with the European with the European B. cryptarum."

I gather it was determined from this study that the 21 nucleotides difference between Russian B. cryptarum and Albertan B. moderatum was sufficient for lumping them together.

 
Bombus cryptarum
I thought you might enjoy seeing my blog on this bumble bee:

http://www.thepaintboxgarden.com/a-cryptic-bumble-bee/

 
Bombus in blog
Thanks for your advice. I've corrected it.

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