''Bombus cerdanyensis'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

bumble bee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Apidae Apidae is the largest family within the superfamily Apoidea, containing at least 5700 species of bees. The family includes some of the most commonly seen bees, including bumblebees and honey bees, but also includes stingless bees (also used for ...

known from a fossil found in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

History and classification

''Bombus cerdanyensis'' was described from a solitary fossil, which is a compression-impression fossil pair preserved in layers of soft

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...

rock. Along with other well preserved insect fossils, the ''B. cerdanyensis'' specimen was collected from layers of

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

terrigenous In oceanography, terrigenous sediments are those derived from the erosion of rocks on land; that is, they are derived from ''terrestrial'' (as opposed to marine) environments. Consisting of sand, mud, and silt carried to sea by rivers, their ...

and

diatomite Diatomaceous earth (), diatomite (), or kieselgur/kieselguhr is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that can be crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. It has a particle size ranging from more than 3 μm to le ...

s exposed around the small town of

Bellver de Cerdanya Bellver de Cerdanya is a town in the comarca of Cerdanya, province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. Integrated villages and hamlets * Baltarga, 38 inhabitants *Beders, 14 inhabitants *Bellver de Cerdanya, 1.314 inhabitants * Bor, 94 inhabitants * Cob ...

, Spain. The sediments are reported as from a deep mountain paleolake that exists about 10 million years ago. Study of the paleoflora preserved in the shales indicates the lake was around in elevation in a climate that was warmer than the current conditions in the area. At the time of study, the holotype counterpart and part were part of the paleoentomology collections housed by the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle. It was first studied by an international team of researchers headed by Manuel Dehon of the

University of Mons The University of Mons (french: Université de Mons) is a Belgian university located in the city of Mons, founded in 2009 by merging the Engineering Faculty of Mons (FPMs) and the University of Mons-Hainaut. The merging of the institutions wa ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, with the teams 2014

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

of the species was published in the

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

journal '' PLOS ONE''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''cerdanyensis'' was coined as reference to the type locality of the

Cerdanya Cerdanya () or often La Cerdanya ( la, Ceretani or ''Ceritania''; french: Cerdagne; es, Cerdaña), is a natural comarca and historical region of the eastern Pyrenees divided between France and Spain. Historically it was one of the counties ...

region Spain. Linear discriminant analyses of the body and wing structuring indicated a relationship to members of the bee clade Corbiculata, which encompasses the living tribes

Apini A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmo ...

Bombini 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 ...

Euglossini The tribe (biology), tribe Euglossini, in the subfamily Apinae, commonly known as orchid bees or euglossine bees, are the only group of Pollen basket, corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess Eusociality, eusocial behavior. ...

Meliponini Stingless bees, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (about 550 described species), comprising the tribe Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other authors). They belong in the family A ...

and the extinct tribes Melikertini, Electrapini, and Electrobombini. Within Corbiculata, Apini has a distinct wing marginal cell and Meliponini has very reduced wing venation, neither features seen in ''B. cerdanyensis''. The overall sizes of both

pterostigma The pterostigma (plural: pterostigmata) is a group of specialized cells in the outer insect wing, wings of insects, which are often thickened or coloured, and thus stand out from other cells. It is particularly noticeable in dragonfly, dragonfli ...

and prestigma are different then seen in members of Electrobombini, while the apical area is

papillate This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary o ...

, showing small bumps, as seen in Bombini. ''B. cerdanyensis'' is one of four bee species described by Dehon and team in the ''PLOS ONE'' article, the others being ''

Andrena antoinei ''Andrena antoinei'' is an extinct species of mining bee in the family Andrenidae described from a single fossil found in a Late Oligocene lake in present-day France that existed in semi-arid conditions. History and classification ''A. antoin ...

'', '' Euglossopteryx biesmeijeri'', and '' Protohabropoda pauli''.

Description

The ''B. cerdanyensis'' fossil is an adult preserved with a dorsal view of the body, outstretched left forewing, and missing its head, hindwings, right forewing. The forewing is long has one marginal cell and three cells below, called the submarginal cells. The marginal cell had a closed tip end that is notably rounded and it is longer than the distance between the wing tip and the apex of the cell. Over the length of the cell it tapers down in width, being widest near the basal end and narrowest at the apical end. The submarginal cells are placed along the lower basal margin of the marginal cell, and are all nearly the same size. A

is present being small in trapezohedral. The apical area of the wing is darkened notably and has a distinct papillate texture.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q19596157 † Miocene insects Fossil taxa described in 2014 Insects described in 2014 Fossils of Spain Prehistoric insects of Europe Fossil bee taxa