Nannotrigona minuta (Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1836)

Rasmussen, Claus & Gonzalez, Victor H., 2017, The neotropical stingless bee genus Nannotrigona Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini): An illustrated key, notes on the types, and designation of lectotypes, Zootaxa 4299 (2), pp. 191-220 : 216

Nannotrigona minuta (Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1836)

Melipona minuta Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1836: 427 [holotype: possibly MRSN]

Provenance. This little-known species was described from an unknown locality and has not been restudied since its description in 1836. Camargo and Pedro (2007) considered that it was near Nannotrigona testaceicornis , but based on the description it is not possible to refer the species with certainty to the genus Nannotrigona . The brief original description only details the coloration and the small size in latin and french: “ Nigra , antennis anticé, mandibularumque basi et tarsis testaceis; abdominis segmentorum margine infero pallido. Alae subhyalinae, in parte caracteristicá fuscae / Noire: face antérieure des antennes testacée, ainsi que la base des mandibules. Tarses testacés. Bord inférieur des segmens de l'abdomen pâle. Ailes assez transparentes; une assez grande tache brune sur une partie des cellules cubitales et discoïdales. Worker. Plus petite que toutes les précédentes”. [Black antenna, basal mandible and tarsi brownish yellow; margin of abdominal segments pale. The wings subhyalinae, in part characteristic dark / Black: anterior part of antenna testaceous as is the base of the mandibles. Tarsi yellow brown. Lower border of abdominal segment pale. Quite transparent wings; a rather large brown spot on a portion of the cubital and discoid cells. Worker. Smaller than all previous [being species of Melipona and Trigona spinipes (Fabricius) ].

Comments. The original description mentions that the type specimen is in “ Musée de M. Serville ” but our search in MNHP did not locate any potential type material. Some material from the Serville collection was later incorporated into the Spinola collection in MRSN ( Bradley , 1957; Carpenter , 2011) and others are in the Westwood collection in OUMNH ( Baker , 1994). Casolari and Moreno (1979) recorded four specimens in MRSN Spinola drawer (scatola) 114 (originally drawer 58) of “ Trigona minuta ” described by Lepeletier , from the Serville collection, and collected in Brazil. These are likely the missing type specimens, but according to Marinella Garzena the museum remains closed since August 3rd, 2013, with no access to the insect collection and no scheduled opening date (in correspondence October 2013, January 2014, and May 2015).