Bombus rubriventris: type locality, different histories of bumblebees in the New World, and a likely invertebrate extinction

The bumblebee Bombus rubriventris Lepeletier is known only from the holotype. This specimen was collected at least 180years ago and possibly more than 200years ago. Given the high level of survey effort applied to bumblebees in general and the knowledge that there is only one other bumblebee species (among c.250 species) known from a single specimen, it seems reasonable to infer from available information that B. rubriventris is likely to be extinct. However, the location of the type locality remains uncertain. Although there is no reason to challenge the original description placing the type locality in Brazil, there are reasons to doubt whether a label St. Domingue. (interpreted by later authors as placing the type locality either in Goias or in the Dominican Republic) originally belonged to the specimen. Indirect evidence from morphology and from the historical biogeography of bumblebees supports a South American type locality, with the Brazilian Atlantic Forest as a likely candidate.