Bombini

Bombini
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Tribe: Bombini
Latreille 1802
Genera

Bombus
†Calyptapis
†Oligobombus

The Bombini are a tribe of large bristly apid bees which feed on pollen or nectar. Many species are social, forming nests of up to a few hundred individuals; other species, formerly classified as Psithyrus cuckoo bees, are brood parasites of nest-making species. The tribe contains a single living genus, Bombus, the bumblebees,[1] and some extinct genera such as Calyptapis and Oligobombus.[2]

Fossils

Bombus cerdanyensis was described from Late Miocene lacustrine beds of La Cerdanya, Spain in 2014.[3]

Calyptapis florissantensis was described by Cockerell in 1906 from the Chadronian (Eocene) lacustrine – large shale of Florissant in the USA.[4][5]

Oligobombus cuspidatus was described by Antropov in 2014 from the Insect Bed of the Bembridge Marls in the Eocene of the Isle of Wight, England. The fossil was described by re-examining a specimen in the Smith Collection.[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ "Tribe Bombini - Bumble Bees". BugGuide. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "Tribe Bombini Latreille 1802 (bee)". FossilWorks. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Dehon, Manuel; Michez, Denis; Nel, Andre; Engel, Michael S.; De Meulemeester, Thibaut (2014). "Wing Shape of Four New Bee Fossils (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) Provides Insights to Bee Evolution". PLOS One 9 (10). PMC 4212905.
  4. ↑ "Bombus florissantensis Cockerell 1906 (bumble bee)". FossilWorks. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  5. ↑ Cockerell, T. D. A (1906). "Fossil Hymenoptera from Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 50 (2): 33–58.
  6. ↑ "†Oligobombus Antropov 2014 (bee)". FossilWorks. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  7. ↑ Antropov, A. V. et al. (May 2014). "The wasps, bees and ants (Insecta: Vespida=Hymenoptera) from the Insect Limestone (Late Eocene) of the Isle of Wight". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 104: 1–112. doi:10.1017/S1755691014000103.

Sources