Validating Morphometrics with DNA Barcoding to Reliably Separate Three Cryptic Species of Bombus Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae).

ABSTRACT: Despite their large size and striking markings, the identification of bumble bees (Bombus spp.) is surprisingly difficult. This is particularly true for three North American sympatric species in the subgenus Pyrobombus that are often misidentified: B. sandersoni Franklin, B. vagans Smith B. perplexus Cresson. Traditionally, the identification of these cryptic species was based on observations of differences in hair coloration and pattern and qualitative comparisons of morphological characters including malar length. Unfortunately, these characteristics do not reliably separate these species. We present quantitative morphometric methods to separate these species based on the malar length to width ratio (MRL) and the ratios of the malar length to flagellar segments 1 (MR1) and 3 (MR3) for qu

SUBMITTER: Milam J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7600840 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature