(Hymenoptera: Apidae), an Invasive Species in Argentina Benoît Geslin, Carolina L
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New records reveal rapid geographic expansion of Bombus terrestris Linnaeus, 1758 (Hymenoptera: Apidae), an invasive species in Argentina Benoît Geslin, Carolina L. Morales To cite this version: Benoît Geslin, Carolina L. Morales. New records reveal rapid geographic expansion of Bombus ter- restris Linnaeus, 1758 (Hymenoptera: Apidae), an invasive species in Argentina. Check List, Luís Felipe Toledo, 2015, 11, pp.1620 - 1620. 10.15560/11.3.1620. hal-01704177 HAL Id: hal-01704177 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01704177 Submitted on 8 Feb 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 11 3 1620 the journal of biodiversity data April 2015 Check List NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION Check List 11(3): 1620, April 2015 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15560/11.3.1620 ISSN 1809-127X © 2015 Check List and Authors New records reveal rapid geographic expansion of Bombus terrestris Linnaeus, 1758 (Hymenoptera: Apidae), an invasive species in Argentina Benoît Geslin1* and Carolina L. Morales2 1 Universidad Nacional del Río Negro – CONICET, Rio Negro, Argentina 2 Laboratorio Ecotono, INIBIOMA, Universidad Nacional del Comahue – CONICET, Río Negro, Argentina * Corresponding author: Email: [email protected] Abstract: Bombus terrestris Linnaeus is an invasive Bombus terrestris in particular is a suitable species for bumblebee in Argentina. Since its first record in March rearing and transport in nesting boxes, so is used to 2006, B. terrestris has rapidly become the most wide- provide pollination services worldwide, even in regions spread species in the southern Argentina’s Patagonia. where it is non-native (Lye et al. 2011). The explosion of B. terrestris populations has been asso- In 2011, a comprehensive survey was carried out to ciated with the rapid decline of the unique native species assess B. terrestris, B. ruderatus and B. dahlbomii popula- B. dahlbomii, Guérin-Méneville. However, B. terrestris tions in Argentina’s Patagonia (Morales et al. 2013). This had never been yet reported farther south than the 50° study included the entire geographic range of B. dahl- parallel. We report for the first time the presence of B. bomii along the eastern slope of the Andes, ascertained terrestris at the southern end of continental Patagonia based on a comprehensive review of museum records and discuss its meaning with regards on potential con- (Abrahamovich and Díaz 2001). The survey documented sequences for B. dahlbomii populations. a rapid expansion of B. terrestris populations, both in abundance and geographic range (Morales et al. 2013). Key words: Bombus dahlbomii, invasive bumblebee Five years after it was first recorded,B. terrestris had species, Patagonia become the most abundant and widespread species, and was observed approximately 650 km further south than it had been reported for the last time (Montalva Argentina has eight native bumblebee species (Abra- et al. 2011). In contrast, populations of the native B. hamovich and Diaz 2001). However, only one native dahlbomii declined drastically, completely disappearing species occurs in the southern Argentina’s Patagonia, from several locations where they were replaced by inva- Bombus dahlbomii, Guérin-Ménéville, 1835 (Abrahamov- sive bumblebees, in particular B. terrestris (Morales et ich and Diaz 2001; Abrahamovich et al. 2007). This large al. 2013). This dramatic decline has been strongly linked generalist bumblebee plays a key role in ensuring repro- to the presence of the invasive B. terrestris, probably duction of many native and endemic plants of the tem- due to a combination of competition for resources and perate forests of the Patagonian region (Morales and horizontal transfer of pathogens from B. terrestris to B. Aizen 2002; Montalva et al. 2011). dahlbomii (Arbetman et al. 2012; Morales et al. 2013), a Two introduced European bumblebee species have hypothesis that should be tested. invaded this region, however. Bombus ruderatus (Fabri- In 2011, not a single B. terrestris was recorded far- cius; 1775) and B. terrestris (Linnaeus, 1758) were recorded ther south than the 50° parallel, during 4-hour walk for the first time in Argentina’s Patagonia in 1993 and transects (Morales et al. 2013) or during the rest of the 2006 respectively. These two invasive species probably time spent in the area (in total 4 days, Morales, pers. entered Argentina through low-altitude passes across obs.). Further in the south than this point, B. terrestris the Andes (Roig-Alsina and Aizen 1996, Torretta et al. was virtually absent, thus leaving refuge areas for B. 2006) from Chile, where they were introduced for crop dahlbomii populations, which were still present in 2011 pollination in 1982–1983 and 1998 respectively (Roig- (Table 1; see also Morales et al. 2013). However, this Alsina and Aizen 1996; Torretta et al. 2006). Bumblebees report indicates new records of B. terrestris, 300 km in general are considered valuable crop pollinators and further south than the survey of 2011, indicating an Check List | www.biotaxa.org/cl 1 Volume 11 | Number 3 | Article 1620 Geslin and Morales | Geographic expansion of Bombus terrestris in Argentina Table 1. Records of B. dahlbomii and B. terristris individuals in the surveys of 2011 (see methodological details in Morales et al. 2013) and 2014 (see Mate- rial and Methods). The number of individuals recorded (total) and the duration of observations (hours obs.) are provided for each site. Bombus dahlbomii Bombus terrestris 2011 2014 2011 2014 Latitude Longitude Location Total hours obs. Total hours obs. Total hours obs. Total hours obs. (S) (W) Camino a Lago del Desierto 27 4 0 4 1 4 >10 6 49°16′24″ 072°64′32″ El Chalten 26 4 0 4 1 4 0-5 6 49°33′05″ 072°88′54″ El Calafate 16 4 0 4 0 4 >20 4 50°31′21″ 072°80′48″ Glaciar Perito Moreno 9 4 1 0.33 0 4 0-5 3 50°46′35″ 073°02′38″ Rio Gallegos NA NA 0 0 NA NA 0-5 3 51°37′20″ 069°12′50″ important expansion of its geographic range. of El Calafate, ca. 150 km south of El Chalten (50°31′21″ The morphological differences betweenB. dahlbomii S, 072°80′48″ W; Figure 2; Table 1). These represent and B. terrestris make them easily visually distinguish- the first specimens recorded south of the 50° parallel able, even for non-specialists, and specimen collection in Argentina, given that in 2011, no B. terrestris were is not necessary (Figure 1). Bombus dahlbomii, the largest bumblebee known, has a predominantly orange ferru- ginous pilosity completely covering the mesosoma and metasoma, apart from the sixth metasomal tergite, and light brown wings (Figure 1a). Queens are ground-nest- ing and colonies are small (Montalva et al. 2011). Bombus terrestris has yellow dorsal hair on the mesosoma and the rest of the thorax is black. Metasomal tergites 1 and 3 have black hairs, tergite 2 has yellow hairs, and tergites 4 and 5 have white hairs (Figure1b; see also Montalva et al. 2011). Bombus terrestris is ground-nesting and colo- nies are relatively large (up to 500 brood cells; Westphal Figure 1. Bumblebees species currently inhabiting Santa Cruz province, Southern Argentina’s Patagonia: (a) queen of the native Bombus dahlbomii et al. 2009). The other invasive species,B. ruderatus has foraging on native Vicia nigricans and of (b) the invasive species Bombus not been recorded further south than the 71°6′ parallel terrestris foraging on Adesmia sp. (Photos: C. Morales) (Morales et al. 2013: WebTable 1) and although its col- ors are similar to B. terrestris (yellow, black and white), the pattern of colors is completely different.Bombus ruderatus has a typically golden-yellow mesosoma with a well-defined black band in the interwing. The meta- somal tergite is black and yellow, ending with white hairs. No other native bumblebee species has been reported for Santa Cruz Province (Abrahamovich and Diaz 2001: Figures 1–6), and the second southernmost native bumblebee species in Argentina (Bombus atratus) is entirely black (Plischuk et al. 2009: Figure 1). There- fore the risk of confusion with other native or invasive Bombus species is negligible. All data were based on per- sonal observations (Geslin pers. obs.). When a specimen was observed, the visited plant was observed for 5 to 10 minutes to count the number of bumblebee individuals. On 22 December 2014, in the El Chalten locality (49°33′05″ S, 072°88′54″ W) and Camino a lago del Desi- erto (49°16′24″S, 072°64′32″ W; Figure 2; Table 1) > 10 B. terrestris individuals were recorded during a 6-hour walk (Table 1). These two localities represented the southern- most records of individuals of B. terrestris in 2011 (Table Figure 2. Map of the southernmost part of Argentina’s Patagonia, show- 1, Morales et al. 2013). In those localities and near them, ing the province of Santa Cruz (continental), where all the surveys were B. dahlbomii was quite abundant in 2011, but no B. dahl- done, and the province of Tierra del Fuego (insular). The light-red points bomii individuals were recorded on this occasion (Table represent the southernmost records of B. terrestris from the 2011 survey of 1). On 25 December and 31 December 2014, several Morales et al. (2013). The dark red points represent the new records of B. individuals of B. terrestris were recorded in the locality terrestris.