Centris ruae Cockerell, 1949

Vivallo, Felipe, 2020, The bees of the genus Centris Fabricius, 1804 described by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Apidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 618, pp. 1-47 : 19-20

Centris ruae Cockerell, 1949

Fig. 13

Centris (Melanocentris) ruae Cockerell, 1949: 474–475 .

New junior synonym of C. (Hemisiella) nitida Smith, 1874 .

Type data

This species was described based on male and female specimens collected in Honduras. The female holotype was collected on March 30 at Escuela Agrícola Panamericana by Rua Williams, the wife of the American explorer and botanist Louis Otho Williams, who worked on the flora of Central America ( Burger 1991). According to the original description, the type series was composed of another female specimen collected by Adan Rivera on April 8 and two males collected by Wilmatte P. Cockerell and Adan Rivera on January 28. The holotype ( Fig. 13 ) is currently housed at NMNH and has the following data label: Zamorano Honduras March 30 Mrs. Williams [handwritten]\ Centris ruae Ckll Type\ [red label] Type No [printed] 58880 [handwritten] USNM [printed]\ [yellow label] USNM ENT 00534212 [barcode] [printed]\\ DO NOT REMOVE SI DB Reference Not a property tag T. Schultz NMNH [printed].

Type locality

Honduras: Francisco Morazán Department: Zamorano.

Comment

Snelling (1984) mentioned, he studied the type specimen of C. ruae , considering it conspecific with C. transversa Pérez, 1905 . It is not clear whether he studied the type of the latter species to propose the mentioned synonymy, but according to the information he cited in his article, apparently he did not, assuming the differences between both species as a result of variation. The study of both type specimens allows recognizing C. transversa and C. ruae as different species, and proposing the transfer of the latter from the synonymy of the former species to the synonymy of C. nitida .

Figures

Fig. 13. Centris ruae Cockerell, 1949, holotype, ♀ (NMNH; USNM ENT 00534212). A. Frontal view. B. Habitus, lateral view. Scale bars: A = 1 mm; B = 2 mm.