Centrisvulpecula Burmeister,1876

Vivallo, Felipe, 2023, The primary types of some species of Centris bees described by European entomologists in the 18 and 20 centuries (Hymenoptera: Apidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 864, pp. 1-27 : 5-6

Centrisvulpecula Burmeister,1876

Centrisvulpecula Burmeister, 1876: 164 .

Type data

This species was described based on a series composed of specimens of both sexes collected in Uruguay, Brazil and in the Argentinean cities of Mendoza and Paraná. According to Roig-Alsina (2000), the specimen from Brazil corresponds to C. tarsata Smith, 1874 and those from Uruguay and Paraná to C. trigonoides Lepeletier, 1841 . The male from Mendoza was designated by him as lectotype. The specimen has the following data label: [red-rimmed white yellowish label] 231. [handwritten]\ [light green label] Mendo-za. [printed]\ vulpecula Nobis [handwritten]\ [black-rimmed pink label] Centrisvulpecula Burm. ♂ [handwritten] LECTOTYPUS [printed] A. Roig Alsina 2000 [handwritten] ( MACN). The paralectotypes are also housed in the same collection.

Type locality

Argentina: Mendoza Province, Mendoza.

Peter Cameron

Peter Cameron (1847‒1912) was a very enthusiastic English amateur entomologist and specialist of Hymenoptera . He was a very prolific, and by some considered chaotic, descriptor of species ( Morley 1913). His collection is currently housed at NHMUK; his type specimens are also deposited in this collection, as well as at OUMNH. Cameron died in New Mills, England, aged 65.

Cameron’s Centris bee

Cameron described only one species of Centris under the name Paracentris fulvohirta Cameron, 1903 . The description was based on an undetermined number of males, collected by the English mountaineer, explorer and illustrator Edward Whymper (1840‒1911). In 1880, Whymper organized an expedition to Ecuador, designed primarily to collect data for the study of altitude sickness and the effect of reduced pressure on the human body ( Chisholm 1911). The results of his journey were published in 1892, in a volume entitled “ Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator ” ( Bonney 1892). During his travel, Whymper made a collection of amphibians and reptiles that he handed over to the Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger (1858‒1937) at the British Museum ( Boulenger 1882). He also made a very large collection of insects that were housed in the same institution and later studied by Cameron.