Xylocopa (Neoxylocopa) aurulenta (Fabricius 1804: 351)

Fig. 3

Known distribution. Brazil (Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Guapore, Minas Gerais, Pará, Rio Branco, Rondônia), Guyana, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname (Hurd 1978: 48). Type locality: “America meridionali” (Fabricius 1804: 351).

Material examined. Brazil: Amazonas: Tapuruquara, X.1954, A. Aguirre (1 ♀), VI.1963, L. Guidani (58 ♀), Tefé, XI.1959 (1 ♀) ; Pará: Belem, X.1954, O. Rego (1 ♀), X.1955 (1 ♀), 6.X.1954 (1 ♀), XI.1960 (1 ♀), Brancanca, 22.III.1956, M. C. Oliveira (1 ♀), Curusamba, Óbidos, VII.1955, J. Brazilino (1 ♀), 1.VIII.1954, J. Brazilino (1 ♀), Fordlândia, I.1956, R. Damageno (1 ♀), Mosqueiro, 29.VIII.1954, N. Cerqueira (1 ♀) .

Notes. This species belongs to a well-defined South American species group whose females have orange pubescence on the mesosoma. Moure (1949) provides a key to several species in this group, which however does not include X. (N.) aurulenta . Females of this species can be readily separated from those of the other Amazon basin species in this group by the lack of orange pubescence on the first metasomal tergite.