Identification of Bombus species based on wing venation structure

Abstract

-About 250 bumblebee species in 15 subgenera are known in the world. Identification of some species is difficult due to small morphological differences. In this study, wing venation patterns were analysed to obtain characters for species identification. Four hundred and sixty-nine bumblebees from 121 localities in Slovenia and 61 imported individuals were included in the analyses. The coordinates of 19 vein junctions on the forewings were measured and used in the calculation of 37 wing characters. Based on discriminate method, more than 97% of all analysed bumblebees were assigned to the correct species. The most informative characters were angles J16, A4 and discoidal shift. Wing venation pattern also differed between autochthonous and imported Bombus terrestris individuals.bumblebees / identification / wing venation / Slovenia

Applications of Morphometrics to the Hymenoptera, Particularly Bumble Bees (Bombus, Apidae)

“…1: 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,16,18,19,21,23,24 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,16,18,19,21,23,24,25 Q T, C Plowright & Stephen, 1980 19 Fig. 1: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,16,17,18,19,23,26 Q, W T, C Kozmus et al, 2011 Apidae, Bombini 14 Fig. 1: 1,3,4,…”

“…Not only have the distances between points been used for traditional and geometric morphometrics, but the angles described by wing veins, and some indices based on the points have also been calculated and used as characters for species discrimination (Tüzün, 2009;Kozmus et al, 2011). Also Alexander (1991) used two wing vein angles in his cladistic analysis of the genus Apis.…”

“…Kozmus et al (2011) used eight lengths, 17 wing angles and five indices calculated from 19 points ( Fig. 1, Table 1) for a total of 37 characters, and measured 530 queens and workers from 18 European species of bumble bees.…”

“…They did discriminant analysis based on Mahalanobis distance and from this assigned each specimen to a group. Canonical variates analysis was also performed and used to calculated three variables to separate the species into groups (Kozmus et al, 2011). They were able to correctly assign 97% of the bumble bees to the correct species, an in 13 species all the bees were correctly assigned (Kozmus et al, 2011).…”

“…Canonical variates analysis was also performed and used to calculated three variables to separate the species into groups (Kozmus et al, 2011). They were able to correctly assign 97% of the bumble bees to the correct species, an in 13 species all the bees were correctly assigned (Kozmus et al, 2011). They found that three characters were particularly informative, based on high R 2 (explained variability) from an ANOVA.…”