Xylocopa (Biluna) iridipennis Lepeletier, 1841

Ascher, John S., Soh, Zestin W. W., Chui, Shao Xiong, Soh, Eunice J. Y., Ho, Benjamin M., Lee, John X. Q., Gajanur, Anya R. & Ong, Xin Rui, 2022, The bees of Singapore (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila): First comprehensive country checklist and conservation assessment for a Southeast Asian bee fauna, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 70, pp. 39-64 : 50

37. Xylocopa (Biluna) iridipennis Lepeletier, 1841 , Purplewinged Bamboo-Carpenter

This species was recorded in the Singapore Red Data Book ( Murphy et al., 2008; as Biluna auripennis ) as DD and cited as the “Parasitic Carpenter Bee” even though this and all other Xylocopini are non-parasitic pollen collectors. It was said to have been seen “once from central catchment forest in Singapore ” yet its survival was said to depend “entirely on the integrity and condition of the Bukit Timah forest”. This bee has at least one additional historical record from Singapore ( Dover, 1929) and has recently been found at Kent Ridge, One-North Park, the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Eco Garden, and far outside the central forest at Pulau Ubin. This species nests not in primary dipterocarp forest but rather in bamboo patches. Species of Biluna occupy bamboo internodes for nesting, entering from a hole they make with their mandibles (Hongjamrassip & Warrit, 2014). Targeted searches at and adjacent to the more extensive bamboo patches in Singapore would clarify its status. Xylocopa iridipennis has been treated by most recent authors as a subspecies of Xylocopa auripennis , but considerable DNA sequence divergence between these forms ( Blaimer et al., 2018) suggests that these are specifically distinct.