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Distinguishing white-tailed bumblebees in the Netherlands: morphology, ecology and DNA-barcoding
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  • Lucas Alferink,
  • Leon Marshall,
  • Roland De Jonghe,
  • Jacobus Biesmeijer
Lucas Alferink
Naturalis Biodiversity Center

Corresponding Author:alferink.lucas@gmail.com

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Leon Marshall
Naturalis Biodiversity Center
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Roland De Jonghe
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Jacobus Biesmeijer
Naturalis Biodiversity Center
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Abstract

White-tailed bumblebee species, Bombus cryptarum, B. lucorum, B. magnus and B. terrestris are known to be very similar in their morphological characters across the majority of their ranges. This hampers assessment of their status and trends because reliable identification is difficult. In this study, we use a combination of characters and methods to assess how ecologists and citizen scientists can reliably and quickly separate these four species occurring in the Netherlands. Bumblebees (queens, workers and males) were sampled from 10 locations across the Netherlands and specimens were identified based on COI sequence data. Next, the same specimens where scored for morphological traits. We show that a combination of easy to recognise characteristics can separate some specimens of the species depending on caste and sex. Bombus magnus males and queens and B. lucorum males were most reliably separated from the other species using morphological characters. Workers of all four species cannot be separated completely using morphological characters alone. This is the first time standard morphological characters and ecological data has been used to study the differences between the white-tailed bumblebees in the Netherlands. Based on our findings we need to conclude that the status of these bumblebee species in the Netherlands is uncertain due to possible misidentifications in the past and present. People who wish to work with these species should be careful in species identification based on morphology.
31 Aug 2020Submitted to Ecology and Evolution
31 Aug 2020Submission Checks Completed
31 Aug 2020Assigned to Editor
03 Sep 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
18 Sep 2020Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
23 Oct 2020Editorial Decision: Revise Minor