Apis cerana subsp. heimifeng Engel 1999

Apis cerana heimifeng Engel

Apis cerana heimifeng Engel, 1999: 179.

Apis cerana abaensis Hepburn, Radloff, Smith, and Otis, 2001: 6. Nomen nudum.

COMMENTS: Peng et al. (1989) performed a preliminary morphometric study of variation in the Asian honey bee, A. cerana. From these studies they recognized several distinctive morphoclusters that they termed races and to which they gave vernacular names (for purposes of discussion). One race was identified with the vernacular name ‘‘Aba race’’ and later validated as A. cerana heimifeng. Peng et al. (1989) never employed their name ‘‘Aba’’ as a Latinized taxonomic entity. Recently, Hepburn et al. (2001) have unfortunately turned this vernacular name into a Latinized epithet by employing it as a subspecific name for which it was never intended, rather than use an already valid taxonomic name for this morphotype.