Abstract
The High Arctic bumble bee fauna is rather poorly known, while a growing body of recent molecular research indicates that several Arctic species may represent endemic lineages with restricted ranges. Such local endemics are in need of special conservation efforts because of the increasing anthropogenic pressure and climate changes. Here, we re-examine the taxonomic and biogeographic affinities of bumble bees from Novaya Zemlya using historical samples and recently collected materials (1895–1925 vs. 2015–2017). Three bumble bee species inhabit the Yuzhny (Southern) Island and the southern edge of Severny (Northern) Island of this archipelago: Bombusglacialis Friese, 1902, B.hyperboreus Schönherr, 1809, and B.pyrrhopygus Friese, 1902. Bombusglacialis shares three unique COI haplotypes that may indicate its long-term (pre-glacial) persistence on Novaya Zemlya. In contrast, Bombushyperboreus and B.pyrrhopygus share a rather low molecular divergence from mainland populations, with the same or closely related haplotypes as those from Arctic Siberia and Norway. A brief re-description of Bombuspyrrhopygus based on the newly collected topotypes is presented. Habitats, foraging plants and life cycles of bumble bees on Novaya Zemlya are characterized, and possible causes of extremely low bumble bee abundance on the archipelago are discussed. The species-poor bumble bee fauna of Novaya Zemlya is compared with those in other areas throughout the Arctic. The mean bumble bee species richness on the Arctic Ocean islands is three times lower than that in the mainland Arctic areas (3.1 vs. 8.6 species per local fauna, respectively). General linear models (GLMs) indicate that this difference can be explained by specific environmental conditions of insular areas. Our findings highlight that the insularity is a significant factor sharply decreasing species richness in bumble bee assemblages on the Arctic Ocean archipelagoes through colder climate (lower summer temperatures), prevalence of harsh Arctic tundra landscapes with poor foraging resources, and in isolation from the mainland.
Highlights
Novaya Zemlya is an Arctic archipelago comprising two large islands, i.e., the Yuzhny (Southern) and Severny (Northern) islands, and numerous small islets
While three bumble bee species are known from Novaya Zemlya, i.e., Bombus glacialis, B. pyrrhopygus and B. hyperboreus (Table 2), the mean number of recorded species per sample is 1.62 and 1.35 in recent and historical samples, respectively
Bumble bee fauna of Novaya Zemlya with taxonomic remarks on historical checklists Three species of bumble bees were recorded from Novaya Zemlya based on recent and historical samples: Bombus pyrrhopygus, B. hyperboreus, and B. glacialis (Table 2)
Summary
Novaya Zemlya is an Arctic archipelago comprising two large islands, i.e., the Yuzhny (Southern) and Severny (Northern) islands, and numerous small islets. This huge insular area has a harsh Arctic climate (Coulson et al 2014). It was thought that Novaya Zemlya has a low level of endemism of vascular plants and terrestrial animals (Brochmann et al 2003) and that extensive Pleistocene ice sheets did not cover the Yuzhny Island (Mangerud et al 2008; Coulson et al 2014). The terrestrial invertebrate fauna of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago is relatively poorly known, because there were few researchers compared with other areas of the Arctic (Coulson et al 2014). A recent study confirms the status of Bombus glacialis as a divergent phylogenetic lineage and a putative endemic species to the Arctic Ocean islands including Novaya Zemlya (Potapov et al 2018a)
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