Centris (Melanocentris) scutellata Friese, 1901

Vivallo, Felipe, 2019, Taxonomic notes, lectotype designations and new synonymies in some species of the bee genus Centris Fabricius, 1804 described by Sándor Mocsáry and Heinrich Friese (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Zootaxa 4638 (4), pp. 534-546 : 540

Centris (Melanocentris) scutellata Friese, 1901

( Figures 13‒16 )

Centris fusciventris scutellata Friese, 1901 . 273.

Type data: According to Moure et al. (2007) the male and female syntypes are housed at ZMB, but they were not found there. A single male from the type series was found at HNHM and it is here designated lectotype. The specimen has the following data label: [light greenish square] 26 [handwritten]\ Chiriqui Mocsàry [handwritten]\ C. fusciventris v. scutellata Mocs. ³ [handwritten] det. Friese 1898 [printed]. Another male specimen from Chiriqui was found at MNHP with the following data label: [orange square label without text]\ Chiriqui \ fusciventris Mocs v. scutellata Fr. \ Museum Paris Coll. J. Pérez 1915. Despite its provenance, I cannot be confident that it really belongs to the type series.

Type locality: Panama: Chiriquí province .

Comments: The critical study of the type specimen allowed me to correct the subgeneric assignment for this species, transferring it from C. ( Aphemisia ) Ayala, 2002 to C. (Melanocentris) due the strong apical curvature of the mandible and the shape of the innermost tooth. Considering the distance between the lateral ocellus and the compound eye, C. scutellata seems to be related to C. boliviensis , C. flavilabris and C. fulva Friese, 1924 .

Figures

FIGURES 13–16. Centris fusciventris scutellata Friese, 1901 (lectotype female). Fig. 13: Head, frontal view (Scale bar 2 mm). Fig. 14: Habitus, lateral view (Scale bar 5 mm). Fig. 15: Habitus, dorsal view (Scale bar 2 mm). Fig. 16: Labels.