Apis zonata Smith, 1858

38. Apis zonata Smith, 1858 View in CoL

Fig. 39

Apis zonata Smith, 1858a: 8–9 View in CoL , ♀.

Type material examined

Lectotype

INDONESIA • ♀; Mak. [ Makassar , Sulawesi]; [ 2 Sep.–18 Dec. 1856]; OUMNH, ENT-HYME2797-01 ( lectotype indicated by Baker 1993, de facto lectotype by present designation).

Paralectotype

INDONESIA • 1 ♀; Celebes [ Sulawesi]; [ 2 Sep.–18 Dec. 1856]; OUMNH, ENT-HYME2797-02 .

Type locality

Celebes [= Sulawesi], Philippine Islands. Fixed as Sulawesi based on current lectotype designation.

Notes

Baker (1993: 203) wrote the following: “ Four ♀♀ standing as zonata in the UMO type collection were labelled:-

1. ‘Celebes’ [white rectangular label, not regular Wallace label] and ‘ Apis zonata Smith’ [white rectangular label].

2. ‘Mak.’ [white disc] and ‘ Apis zonata Smith’ [white rectangular label].

3. Two specimens, ‘ Celebes Pfeiffer’.

Smith’s zonata was composite, comprising two allopatric insular forms, binghami Cockerell, 1906 , from Celebes, and breviligula Maa, 1953, from the Philippines, both members of the dorsata -complex ( dorsata F., 1793).

While Smith’s catalogues of the Hymenoptera collected by Wallace in the Malay Archipelago were based primarily on the material in W.W, Saunders’ collection, he would no doubt have taken into account other material obtained by other collectors. In considering possible syntypic series, it is therefore difficult to exclude specimens unless it can be shown that they could not have been available at the date of description or that thay [sic] could not have come from the type locality. In the present instance, the Pfeiffer specimens could have been in Saunders’ collection before Smith’s manuscript was prepared (the British Museum had purchased Pfeiffer specimens from Menado in 1855), or they could have been later additions determined, but not labelled, by Smith when later he arranged Saunders’ collection: owing to the uncertainty, the specimens have been labelled simply as possible syntypes. The ‘Celebes’ specimen (1) is also of uncertain date and locality, but is accepted as a syntype because, although the data label is not a regular Wallace label, Smith’s determination label came (from fragments of writing on the reverse) from the same piece of paper as that on specimen (2). Specimen (2) is now designated as the LECTOTYPE of zonata , since it unequivocally comes from the same locality as the other taxa described in the paper. The type has lost L tarsus I; it was in fresh condition when collected, but has been wetted”.

The name A. binghami is due to the fact that A. zonata Smith is a junior primary homonym of Apis zonata Linnaeus, 1758 , a species now placed in the genus Amegilla Friese, 1897 ( Baker 1996). Cockerell (1906: 166) provided the replacement name noting that Smith’s name was a junior primary homonym of Apis zonata Gravenhorst, 1807 , not noting the even earlier use by Linnaeus.

The taxonomic status of A. binghami continues to be controversial. Kitnya et al. (2024) provided a summary, covering the extreme ends of the treatments of the dorsata -group from four species ( Maa 1953) to one species ( Alexander 1991; Engel 1999). A new consensus appears to be emerging to treat A. binghami as a distinct species ( Kitnya et al. 2024), but despite the extensive work on the genus Apis , no-one (except for Baker) actually seems to have examined Smith’s type; we hereby designate the specimen indicated by Baker as the lectotype to fix the terra typica as Sulawesi. The specimen was not labelled by Baker, so we hereby label it as such.

Current status

Apis binghami Cockerell, 1906 .

Distribution

Sulawesi and nearby islands (as A. b. binghami ) and the Philippines (as A. b. breviligula) ( Kitnya et al. 2024).

Species described by Smith (1859) from the Kai and Aru islands