TY - JOUR
T1 - The bumblebees of Sichuan (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Bombini)
AU - Williams, Paul
AU - Tang, Ya
AU - Yao, Jian
AU - Cameron, Sydney
N1 - Funding Information:
Our thanks to Professor Shufang Wang for hergenerous support in helping usto learn about the bumblebees of China; toL.Macior and to J. vanAsperen deBoer formaking their collections of bumblebees from Sichuan available forstudy; toJ.Whitfield, Z.Xie,S.Bai and L. Daoforcollecting assistance inthe field; toL. Macior for allowing us to include some of his plant visit records; to M.Gilbert for some plant identifications; toX.Chen andH.Sunforaccompanying us on our travels through Sichuan in2002; toMr Xiong, MrLuo andMr Li, our drivers; to X.Chen, A.Liang, H.Sun and C.Zhufor liaison and for their assistance in arranging permits for field work; toL.Manne, J. Whitfield andZ.Xieforhelp inchecking thekey;toA.Antropov (ZMMU), E.Diller (ZSM), C.Favret (INHS), D.Furth (USNM),W. Hogenes (ZMA), F. Koch (MNHU), J.-P. Kopelke (NMS), V. Lee (CAS), A.Nilssen (TRM), Y.Pesenko (ZISP), V.Raineri (MCSN), J. Rozen (AMNH), B.Tkalcu andL.Vilhelmsen (ZMC) forarranging loans; toC.Cheetham forhelp with identifying localities; toJ. Hooker, G. Hughes, D.Lees, L.Manne andM.Sadka for help with computing; to S.Bhagwat formodelling species distributions; toA.Polaszekfor photographs of the male genitalia; and to the USDA (USDA-NRI 2001-2935, to SAC),theNational Natural Science Foundation of China (40171038, to TY), and the Chinese Ministry of Education (TY) forresearch grants inaidof field work. Wethank theKeeper and staff oftheDepartment ofEntomology, andtheTrustees ofThe Natural History Museum, London, UK.
PY - 2009/6
Y1 - 2009/6
N2 - Bumblebees are important pollinators in mountainous regions. The highland region of Sichuan and Chongqing (together, Sichuan in the former broad sense) includes part of the greatest hotspot of bumblebee diversity worldwide, with half of the species of China and more than a fifth of the world's species. In this paper we present the first review of this diverse but particularly poorly known fauna, drawing on 6705 bees from selective samples made by the authors during field work and from museum collections, together with 1123 literature records (an overlapping set). Among this material we recognise 56 species that have 847 names (including infrasubspecific names). One new species, Bombus (Pyrobombus) wangae, is described from Sichuan and Gansu. B. laesus is found to have a colour pattern in this part of its range that was previously undescribed. Six species are recorded from the Sichuan-Chongqing region for the first time (B. avanus, B. branickii, B. difficillimus B. humilis, B. norvegicus, B. tibetanus), of which B. avanus is only the second published record worldwide. One species, B. braccatus, is endemic to Sichuan and is confirmed as extant in 2005. We provide diagnoses and keys to species for both sexes. Colour variation is described, distributions within the Sichuan-Chongqing region are mapped, altitudinal and seasonal activity are plotted, and the authors' records of food plants are listed.
AB - Bumblebees are important pollinators in mountainous regions. The highland region of Sichuan and Chongqing (together, Sichuan in the former broad sense) includes part of the greatest hotspot of bumblebee diversity worldwide, with half of the species of China and more than a fifth of the world's species. In this paper we present the first review of this diverse but particularly poorly known fauna, drawing on 6705 bees from selective samples made by the authors during field work and from museum collections, together with 1123 literature records (an overlapping set). Among this material we recognise 56 species that have 847 names (including infrasubspecific names). One new species, Bombus (Pyrobombus) wangae, is described from Sichuan and Gansu. B. laesus is found to have a colour pattern in this part of its range that was previously undescribed. Six species are recorded from the Sichuan-Chongqing region for the first time (B. avanus, B. branickii, B. difficillimus B. humilis, B. norvegicus, B. tibetanus), of which B. avanus is only the second published record worldwide. One species, B. braccatus, is endemic to Sichuan and is confirmed as extant in 2005. We provide diagnoses and keys to species for both sexes. Colour variation is described, distributions within the Sichuan-Chongqing region are mapped, altitudinal and seasonal activity are plotted, and the authors' records of food plants are listed.
KW - Bee systematics
KW - Bee taxonomy
KW - Bombus
KW - China
KW - Chongqing
KW - Hotspots
KW - Mountain biodiversity
KW - Pollination
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=67650401913&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1477200008002843
DO - 10.1017/S1477200008002843
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:67650401913
SN - 1477-2000
VL - 7
SP - 101
EP - 189
JO - Systematics and Biodiversity
JF - Systematics and Biodiversity
IS - 2
ER -