Xylocopa crassa Lepeletier, 1841

(Fig. 36)

Xylocopa crassa Lepeletier, 1841: 204.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Unclear • 1♀ (holotype); India?; OUMNH, ENT-HYME2850.

CURRENT STATUS. — Xylocopa (Platynopoda) tenuiscapa Westwood, 1840 n. syn.

DISTRIBUTION. — Southern Asia, from India to the Malay Peninsula (Ascher & Pickering 2025).

REMARKS

Xylocopa crassa was described as “ Sans indication de patrie. Mus ée de M. le comte Dejean, précédemment Latreille”. Smith (1854: 346) wrote “ Hab. Africa. This is probably the female of torrida, both having been sent together from Fernando Poo [Bioko, Equatorial Guinea] on more than one occasion, with a note to this effect”.This refers to Xylocopa (Mesotrichia) torrida (Westwood, 1838), a species of tropical Africa.Smith (1874: 260) repeated the synonymy, which was followed by Hurd & Moure (1963: 302) and Hurd (1978: 89). Hurd (1978: 89) indicated that the repository of X. crassa was unknown.

It is unclear why Smith wrote this, because X. torrida was described based on the male sex, and X. crassa based on the female sex, but with no evidence provided to link the two. Westwood (1838: 113) was imprecise in giving the locus typicus for X. torrida as “ Habitat in Africa tropicali occidentali ”. Smith’s writing does not indicate if he examined Lepeletier’s type, as is the case for other specimens (e.g. Smith 1854: 363, see below). Hurd (1978: 89) indicates that the repository for X. torrida is also unknown. Smith’s sex association is therefore based on inference, and it is unclear if he examined the type of either species. His writing “having been sent together” cannot refer to type material, but instead newly received specimens.

Examination of the OUMNH collection produced a single badly damaged specimen labelled as X. crassa with a Lepeletier label which must be the holotype,given the stated presence only in the collection of Dejean. It bears a label reading “India?”, which presumably was added by Lepeletier as it matches his handwriting, concluding in the description of the species that there was no prior indication of its geographic origin. Based on the large head with sparse punctures, it appears to be a Xylocopa (Platynopoda) Westwood, 1840 species.Although it is indeed superficially similar due to its large size, dark colouration, and carinate posterior margin of the scutellum, it does not belong to X. torrida due to the sparse punctures of the vertex that are clearly on average separated by much more than a puncture diameter (Fig. 36C; in X. torrida with the punctures of the vertex very dense, separated by 0.5 punctured diameters with the exception of two impunctate areas above the lateral ocelli) and the deeply impressed divots situated dorsolaterally above the lateral ocelli (Fig. 36C; in X. torrida without such divots, surface here only weakly impressed).

Because the antennae are missing, it is not possible to distinguish between the different species of Platynopoda with confidence (a key morphological character for separating females; Hurd & Moure 1963). Xylocopa crassa could be declared to be a nomen dubium due to the specimen lacking this key morphological feature, but it is not unreasonable to synonymise it under Xylocopa tenuiscapa Westwood, 1840, a common species in India, the likely geographic origin of the material. Either way, the functional effect is the same.