Protobombus, Cockerell, 1908

Engel, Michael S., Ortega-Blanco, Jaime, Nascimbene, Paul C. & Singh, Hukam, 2013, The bees of Early Eocene Cambay amber (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Journal of Melittology 2013 (25), pp. 1-12 : 3

Protobombus ? species indeterminate

MATERIAL: AMNH Tad-41-A; India: Gujurat , Tadkeshwar lignite mine; Cambay Formation (Paleo-Eocene), 7–12 January 2009 ( AMNH) .

COMMENTS: A poorly preserved female worker (length approximately 7.5 mm, forewing length approximately 6.7 mm) putatively of the electrapine genus Protobombus Cockerell as indicated by the shape of the metabasitarsus. The specimen is poorly preserved with the wings outstretched from the body, the mesosoma of which is largely opened ventrally and cleared. The head is also only partially preserved, most of the right side and ventral portions being incomplete at the amber surface, with only the scape, pedicel, and basalmost flagellomeres preserved from the bee’s left side. The wings themselves are also somewhat partial with the anterior-apical portions of the bee’s right forewing missing and the left forewing largely crumpled and obscured. Given the diversity of these bees in the somewhat contemporaneous amber of the Baltic region ( Engel, 2001a, 2004) as well as other deposits ( Wappler & Engel, 2003), it is perhaps not surprising that such similar species should be discovered in Cambay amber. It is greatly hoped that more complete and well-preserved specimens will eventually be recovered.