Euglossa (Glossura) ignita Smith, 1874

Nemésio, André & Ferrari, Rafael R., 2012, Euglossa (Glossura) bazinga sp. n. (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Apinae, Apini, Euglossina), a new orchid bee from western Brazil, and designation of a lectotype for Euglossa (Glossura) ignita Smith, 1874, Zootaxa 3590, pp. 63-72 : 65

Euglossa (Glossura) ignita Smith, 1874

Euglossa ignita Smith, 1874: 444 . Lectotype male, present designation (see below), deposited at the British Museum of Natural History, accession number 17b950. Type locality: Jamaica, possibly in error. (Examined through eight high-quality photographs—six of them published in Nemésio, 2009: 124–126).

Euglossa bari Dominique, 1898: 58 . Lectotype male, deposited at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Nantes. Type locality: Íle Portal, French Guiana. Designated by Rasmussen et al. (2007: 60). (not seen).

Euglossa ignita var. chlorosoma Cockerell, 1918: 688 . Holotype female. Deposited at the American Museum of Natural History. Type locality: Bartica District, Guyana. (seen).

Diagnosis. Body length ca. 14.0 mm; head width ca. 5.0 mm; abdominal width ca. 5.5 mm; clypeus green, upper frons green ( Figure 2 D); ivory paraocular markings well developed and complete, anterior surface of scape 2/3 ivory, rest of head green ( Figure 2 D), mandible bidentate, extended tongue exceeding body length; scutum and scutellum green ( Figure 2 B), punctures on scutellum circular, very sparse, with some micropunctures; posterior tuft of mesotibia trapezoidal; anterior tuft about the same size, triangular-oblong ( Figure 2 F); metatibia triangular, subacute ( Figure 2 H); T1–T7 green with golden hues ( Figure 2 B); punctation on T2 fine, sparse; denser on T3–T7; S2 with oblique slits that converge at the midline, with hairs located inside two long and deep depressions, forming tufts widely separated ( Figure 3 B, D, F).

Comments and Lectotype designation. Smith (1874) indicated the “most highly coloured” specimen as that on which he based his description, but he also considered other specimens as members of this species, resulting, thus, in a syntypic series. Moure (1967), however, listed the specimen 17b950 deposited at the British Museum of Natural History (BMNH) as the “ holotype ”, a position followed by all authors since then. Presumably this specimen was illustrated in high-quality photographs in Nemésio (2009a: 124–126). Moure’s (1967) action of listing this particular specimen as the holotype does not qualify as a valid lectotype designation under the Article 74.6 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (hereafter the Code) (ICZN 1999), because it is clear, from Smith’s (1874) statement, that he used several specimens to describe the species. To be valid, a lectotype designation must be individual, explicit and use the word “ lectotype ” or an equivalent expression, and not ambiguous words as “the type ” (see Articles 74.3 and 74.7.1 of the Code). Also, as shown above, Moure (1967) could not infer a holotype by monotypy because Smith (1874) clearly mentioned other specimens in the type series. In order to provide nomenclatural stability, since it is possible that additional specimens from the syntypic series (possibly found both in the BMNH and the Oxford University Museum collections; D. Notton, pers. comm.) are not conspecific with the species traditionally interpreted as E. ignita (Article 74.7.3 of the Code), we here designate as lectotype the specimen number 17b950, deposited in the BMNH and fully illustrated in Nemésio (2009a: 124–126) (see Recommendations 74A and 74B of the Code). The type locality ( Jamaica), on the other hand, is considered by Roubik (see notes in Nemésio & Rasmussen 2011) as a possible label error, since this species has not been recorded from Jamaica after Smith’s (1874) description. Because the only other orchid bee known to occur on Jamaica is endemic, and Jamaica has had no connection to the mainland since the Miocene or earlier, the existence of E. ignita there requires verification. This species is widely distributed in lowland, humid areas in the Neotropics, from Central America to eastern Brazil and could have been an accidental introduction by trade ships but since extinct from Jamaica.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Comparing holotype Euglossa bazinga sp. n. (left column) to E. ignita Smith, 1874 (right column): A – B: dorsal view of metasoma; C – D: frontal view of face; E – F: ventral view of mesotibia; G – H: metatibia. Figures 2 B, D, F and H from an E. ignita specimen from the Amazon (see Appendix 1).

FIGURE 3. Comparing Euglossa bazinga sp. n. (left column) to E. ignita Smith, 1874 (right column): A – B: ventral view of metasoma focusing on S 2; C – D: dorsal view of left S 2 pocket (setae were removed); E – F: frontal view of left S 2 pocket (setae were removed) — see Diagnosis for discussion. Figure 3 A from the holotype; Figure 3 C and 3 E from a paratype. Figures 3 B, D and F from an E. ignita specimen from the Amazon (see Appendix 1).