Xylocopa latipes

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Abstract

Xylocopa latipes (Drury, 1773) (Fig. 43) Apis latipes Drury, 1773: 87, 88, plate XLVIII. MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Indonesia • 1♂ (neotype by present designation); W. Java, Oedjoeng Genteng [Ujung Genteng]; 1.VII.1939; M. A. Lieftinck leg.; RMNH, RMNH.INS.1715473. DISTRIBUTION. — South-east Asia, from north-eastern India (Assam, Nagaland, Sikkim, West Bengal) through southern China and Myanmar to the islands of Borneo, Java, and Bali (Maa 1938; Lieftinck 1955; Ascher & Pickering 2025). REMARKS As mentioned above in the entry for X. marginella, whilst the current use and interpretation of X. latipes is well established (e.g. Smith 1854; 1874; Maa 1938; 1940; Hurd & Moure 1963), the provenance of the original material used to describe it is not. Drury (1773: 87-88, plate XLVIII; Fig. 43A) describes what is clearly a Xylocopa (Platynopoda) male with expanded fore tarsi which are flattened and pale ivory in colour. The antennal scape is also distinctly broadened apically. Drury claims to have received the specimen from “the island of Johanna, near Madagascar” which is the island now called Anjouan or Ndzuani in the Comoro Islands.This is well outside of the known range of X. latipes, as noted by Hurd & Moure (1963: 256): “If, as Drury (1773: 87) has stated, the type of X. latipes came from “… the island of Johanna near Madagascar”– well beyond the known geographic range of the species as currently understood – a reëvaluation [sic] of this complex may be necessary”. Currently, there does not seem to be any potential benefit that could possibly be gained by a re-evaluation of this group based on this reported type locality that is so far outside of the currently accepted range.As for Xylocopa caerulea (Fabricius, 1804) that was nominally described from New Caledonia, but which does not occur further east than Java and Borneo (Wood et al. 2025), it is beneficial to create a neotype to permanently fix the name and concept within its current usage in order to maintain nomenclatural stability (Jiménez-Mejías et al. 2024). In line with Article 75.3 of the Code (ICZN 1999), this neotype designation is necessary to clarify and cement the concept of X. latipes as a species of South-east Asia, as a species that can be immediately recognised in the male sex due to the combination of flattened and ivory-coloured fore tarsi and antennal scape that is broadened apically, and as a species for which type material has been lost and never located by any previous worker (e.g. Maa 1938: 327). The selected neotype matches Drury’s original description and illustration, being a male and sharing the flattened and ivory-coloured fore tarsi and antennal scape that is broadened apically (Fig. 43C, D). The specimen does not come from close to the reported type locality,specifically because the type locality is so doubtful. The new locality was selected as western Java because this is within the known range of the species in its current treatment, and the species is commonly encountered on this island with large population size. This neotype designation is consistent with both current and past use of the name in both taxonomic and ecological publications (e.g. Westwood 1840; Smith 1854, 1874; Maa 1938, 1940; Lieftinck 1955; Hurd & Moure 1963).

Authors 1

1. Thomas James Wood corresponding Aachen Naturalis Biodiversity Center

   Naturalis Biodiversity Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden (the Netherlands)