Xylocopa coronata Smith, 1860

62. Xylocopa coronata Smith, 1860 View in CoL

Fig. 60

Xylocopa coronata Smith, 1860b: 135 View in CoL , ♀.

Type material examined

Lectotype

INDONESIA • ♀; Kai. [Kaisaa]; [ 13–20 Oct. 1858]; OUMNH, ENT-HYME 2818-01 ( lectotype indicated by Lieftinck 1956 b and Baker 1993, de facto lectotype by present designation).

Paralectotype

INDONESIA • 1 ♀; Kai. [Kaisaa]; [ 13–20 Oct. 1858]; OUMNH, ENT-HYME2818-02 .

Other material examined

INDONESIA • 1 ♀; Gil. [Gilolo]; [probably 2 Oct.–5 Nov. 1860]; OUMNH .

Type locality

Kaisaa [= Kajoa].

Notes

Baker (1993: 216) wrote the following:

“ Three ♀♀ standing as coronata in the UMO type collection and all with Smith’s determination labels are labelled:-

a) ‘Kai.’ [white disc] and ‘ Xylocopa coronata Smith ,’

b) ‘Kai.’ [white disc] and ‘ Xylocopa coronata Smith’ [blue paper].

c) ‘Gil.’ [white disc] and ‘ Xylocopa coronata Smith. ’ [blue paper],

Lieftinck (1956: 62) has ‘ 2 ♀ bearing round white labels “Kai” and “Kaio”, with additional white labels “ Xylocopa coronata Smith ” in F, SMITH’S hand, here selected as lectotype and paratype ( OUM, type collection)’. Apart from the errors concerning the labels, this was not a valid type fixation since Lieftinck failed to identify either (a) or (b) as the lectotype; further, he did not label these two specimens as lectotype and ‘paratype’. Specimen (b) is now formally designated as the LECTOTYPE of coronata and it has been labelled accordingly; specimen (a) has been labelled as a paralectotype. The lectotype is intact; the paralectotype has lost the apical segments of tarsus L III.

Specimen (c), no doubt the basis of Smith’s record from Gilolo, has no type status and has so been labelled”.

Baker is correct to argue that Lieftinck’s lectotype designation was invalid because said designation was, as written, ambiguous as to which specimen was selected, and neither specimen was labelled ( ICZN 1999 Article 74.5). However, Baker also did not label a specimen as lectotype! In order to finally define this lectotype, the specimen indicated by Baker is formally designated here as the lectotype ( Fig. 60).

More interestingly than these technical designations, Lieftinck (1955, 1956b) resurrected X. forbesii W.F. Kirby, 1883 as a valid species distinct from X. coronata and found on the Tanimbar islands, and defined X. coronata as senior to the differently coloured but structurally identical X. combinata Ritsema, 1876 (found within the North Maluku islands on the island of Obi).

Current status

Xylocopa ( Maiella) coronata Smith, 1860 ( Ascher & Pickering 2024).

Distribution

Indonesia ( North Maluku islands) ( Smith 1860b, 1862, 1865; Lieftinck 1955, 1956b).