Xylocopa latreilleii Lepeletier, 1841

(Fig. 38)

Xylocopa latreilleii Lepeletier, 1841: 206.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — India • 1♂ (lectotype by present designation); Bengale /Bengalia; OUMNH, ENT-HYME2846.

CURRENT STATUS. — Xylocopa (Platynopoda) tenuiscapa Westwood, 1840 (Maa 1938; Hurd & Moure 1963).

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

REMARKS

Xylocopa latreilleii was described from “ Bengale ” from “ Musées de MM. le comte Dejean et Serville ”. Cockerell (1929: 302) wrote “I saw X. latreillii [sic] in the Hope collection at Oxford, but made no notes”, but it is unclear if he was referring to type material or not.Maa (1938: 323) noted the type locality “of X. latreillei [sic] Lepel., ♀♂ from Bengal, in the Hope Museum, Oxford University”, and treated the taxon as a junior synonym of X. tenuiscapa, a position followed by Hurd & Moure (1963: 308).

It is unclear if Maa ever visited the OUMNH collection, because only a single male could be produced bearing a label in Lepeletier’s handwriting. However, due to the combination of uniformly narrow antennal scape (not broadened and flattened apically) combined with the flattened and S-shaped fore basitarsus, it can conclusively be recognised as a junior synonym of X. tenuiscapa, supporting the position of Maa. Casolari & Casolari Moreno (1980: 148) indicate the presence of a single specimen of X. latreilleii in the MSNT collection from “Bengala” from the collection of “Serville”. This is highly likely to be a syntype from the Serville collection. It is unclear if this has ever been studied, and no precise published reference to it could be found. The single available OUMNH male can be designated as the lectotype (in Fig. 38A labelled only as syntype, lectotype label added subsequently by James Hogan, pers. comm.), conclusively supporting the current nomenclatural situation.