Nomia clavata Smith, 1862

Wood, T. J., Risch, S., Orr, M. C. & Hogan, J. E., 2025, An illustrated type catalogue of the bee species collected by Alfred Russel Wallace and described by Frederick Smith from Southeast Asia (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), European Journal of Taxonomy 1028, pp. 1-144 : 100-101

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2025.1028.3129
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:06182A07-5DB6-4916-86AF-673865690CE2
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/251C1E7D-FFE3-1632-FDDF-10D5FDC95261
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Nomia clavata Smith, 1862
status

Treatment

64. Nomia clavata Smith, 1862

Fig. 62

Nomia clavata Smith, 1862: 59 View in CoL , ♂.

Type material examined

Holotype

INDONESIA • ♂; Gil. [Gilolo]; [probably 2 Oct.–5 Nov. 1860]; OUMNH, ENT-HYME2474 .

Type locality

Gilolo [= Halmahera].

Notes

Baker (1993: 222) wrote the following:

“Of three ♂♂ standing as clavata in the UMO type collection, two, one labelled ‘M’ [Morty] and ‘ Nomia clavata . Smith’, the other ‘Morty Isl.’, evidently the basis of Smith’s 1865 record, are of no type status and have been labelled accordingly. The third, labelled ‘Gil.’ [Gilolo] and ‘ Nomia clavata Smith’, is the HOLOTYPE of clavata and has so been labelled.

Wallace’s three ♂♂ are conspecific. They belong to a widely distributed [southern India and Nepal eastwards to the Philippines and New Guinea] species for which the earliest available name is probably Lipotriches modesta ( Smith, 1862) , q.v., 5.15-2. In the ♂, the nature of the specialized pubescence of sterna 3-5 and the structural peculiarities of sterna 5 and 6 are diagnostic. L. pulchriventris belongs to a rather numerous group of small, slender forms, with, in the ♂, a more or less elongate, subclavate metasoma. Other oriental species include, e.g.. ceratina ( Smith, 1857) , basalis ( Smith, 1857) , elongatula (Cockerell, 1915) and yasumatsui (Hirashima, 1961): all comb. nov. in Lipotriches ”.

Baker placed N. clavata in combination with Lipotriches , this name becoming a junior secondary homonym of L. clavata ( Smith, 1853) (described as Halictus clavatus from Sierre Leone). The name Nomia wallacei Cockerell, 1939 was proposed as a replacement name, but as Baker placed N. clavata in synonymy with L. pulchriventris Cameron, 1897 , this replacement name is relegated to a junior synonym. Pauly (2009) repeated Baker’s synonymy, thus becoming its first publisher.

As for the date of collection, Wallace visited Halmahera twice in 1858 ( 1 Feb.–1 Mar. 1858 and 14 Sep.– 1 Oct. 1858; Wallace 1869) and again in 1860. Since Smith (1860b) described X. coronata from Kajoa based on material collected in 1858 (see Section 62) before later reporting it from Halmahera ( Smith 1862), it is likely that all Halmahera material reported in Smith (1862) is based on the 2 Oct.–5 Nov. 1860 visit to this island.

Current status

Lipotriches ( Rhopalomelissa) pulchriventris (Cameron, 1897) ( Pauly 2009) .

Distribution

India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia (Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, North Maluku), New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Australia ( Queensland) ( Pauly 2009).