Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau 1806

33. Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1806

Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau 1806: 127. Lectotype ♂ (designated by Morgan 1984: 9); France: Paris (MNHN) (examined). Hellén 1954: 87, Valkeila 1962: 64, Tumšs & Maršakovs 1970: 91, Erlandsson 1971: 88, Vikberg 1986b:68, Hedström 1989: 151, Nilsson 1991: 86, Doronin 1996: 18, Hallin 1999, Söderman & Vikberg 2003: 45, Soon 2004: 20, 45, Kalniņš et al. 2007: 142, Hallin 2009: 33, Allearter.dk 2010, Jantunen & Saarinen 2010: 15, 49, Orlovskytė et al. 2010: 148, Paukkunen 2010: 538, Smissen 2010d: 392, Soon & Saarma 2011: 15, Rosa & Soon 2012, Dyntaxa 2013, Johansson, in press.

Chrysis succincta ab. virideocincta Hellén 1920: 211, invalid name. Hellén 1935: 8.

Chrysis succincta var. bicolor: Bischoff 1925: 307, Borries 1891: 96.

Chrysis succincta var. virideocincta Trautmann 1927: 160. Lectotype ♂, (here designated); Russia: Kexholm [= Käkisalmi, Priozersk] (MZH) (examined).

Chrysis succincta f. virideocincta Balthasar 1953: 289, nom. praeocc., nec Trautmann, 1927.

Material examined. *Russian Fennoscandia (total 16 exx.): Ik: Metsäpirtti [= Zaporozhskoe]; Muolaa [= Pravdino]; Rautu [= Sosnovo]; Terijoki [= Zelenogorsk]; Uusikirkko [= Polyany]; Äyräpää [= Baryshevo]; Ka: Antrea [= Kamennogorsk]; Koivisto [= Primorsk]; Kl: Käkisalmi [= Priozersk]; Salmi, Sortavala; Kol: Mayachino.

Distribution. Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, *Russian Fennoscandia.—Transpalearctic: Europe, North Africa, Russian Far East (Kimsey & Bohart 1991, Kurzenko & Lelej 2007).

Remarks. The species has been found from all the Nordic and Baltic countries except Norway. It is relatively rare in Finland and Sweden and only found in the southern parts of these countries. It was classified as near threatened in the Finnish redlist (Paukkunen 2010).

Before the 1950s, Chrysis bicolor was not considered as a separate species in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Instead, all species of the C. succincta group were treated as C. succincta (sensu lato). Hellén (1920) described four new forms of C. succincta from Finland: 1) “ab. virideocincta ”, 2) “ab. chrysoprasina ”, 3) “ab. westerlundi ” and 4) “ab. nordströmi ”. Later Trautmann (1927) treated these taxa as varieties (var.) and Balthasar (1953) as forms (f.) of C. succincta, and thus made their names available as species-group names (ICZN 1999, article 45.6.3.). As Trautmann was the first author to make the names available, he should be considered as their author (ICZN 1999, article 50.3.1.).

C. succincta var. virideocincta was described by Trautmann (1927) as having a golden green mesonotum, but otherwise resembling the nominate form (“ Mesonotum goldgrün, sonst wie nominatsform ”), and it was said to occur in Finland. The same description was given earlier by Hellén (1920) for “ab. virideocincta ”. One male specimen of this taxon was found in the collection of MZH in Helsinki, which bears Hellén’s label “ succincta L. ab. virideocincta m. Hellén det.” and Linsenmaier’s label “ Chrysis bicolor Lep. ♂ Linsenmaier det.” and two other labels with “Kexholm” (= the collection locality, Käkisalmi, currently Priozersk) and “Tengström” (= the collector, J.M.J. af Tengströn (1821–1890)) respectively (Fig. 4). In order to maintain stability in nomenclature, this specimen is here designated as the lectotype of C. succincta var. virideocincta Trautmann, 1927. The lectotype fits well with the current interpretation of C. bicolor, and therefore the name virideocincta should be considered as a junior synonym of bicolor. This synonymy was already stated by Vikberg (1986b), but he erroneously attributed the authorship of virideocincta to Balthasar (1953). Kimsey & Bohart (1991), in turn, placed virideocincta in synonymy with C. succincta.