Department of Biology, Utah State University - Tooele, Tooele, UT, 84074, USA.
Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Oct 20;12(1):17604. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-22402-x.
Despite the broad recognition of mimicry among bumble bees, distinct North American mimicry rings have yet to be defined, due in part to the prevalence of intermediate and imperfect mimics in this region. Here we employ a generalization approach using human perception to categorize mimicry rings among North American bumble bees. We then map species distributions on North American ecoregions to visually test for geographic concordance among similarly-colored species. Our analyses suggest that there are five mimicry rings in the North American bumble bee mimicry complex, and one broadly distributed group of mixed and intermediate color forms. We describe the Black Mimicry Ring, Black-cloaked Mimicry Ring, Eastern Yellow Mimicry Ring, Red Mimicry Ring, and Western Yellow Mimicry Ring as well as the mixed group. We then test these hypothesized mimicry rings by examining other insects that participate in these mimicry rings. Describing these mimicry rings is a vital step that will enable future analyses of imperfect mimicry, intermediate mimicry, and additional analyses of other insects that mimic bumble bees.
尽管熊蜂之间的拟态现象得到了广泛的认可，但由于该地区中间和不完全拟态的盛行，北美的明显拟态环尚未被定义。在这里，我们采用一种基于人类感知的概括方法来对北美的熊蜂拟态环进行分类。然后，我们将物种分布映射到北美生态区上，以直观地测试相似颜色的物种之间是否存在地理一致性。我们的分析表明，在北美熊蜂拟态复合体中存在五个拟态环，以及一个广泛分布的混合和中间颜色形式的群体。我们描述了黑拟态环、黑斗篷拟态环、东部黄拟态环、红拟态环和西部黄拟态环以及混合群体。然后，我们通过检查参与这些拟态环的其他昆虫来检验这些假设的拟态环。描述这些拟态环是至关重要的一步，它将使未来对不完全拟态、中间拟态以及对模仿熊蜂的其他昆虫的其他分析成为可能。
