Xylocopa (Neoxylocopa) aurulenta ( Fabricius 1804: 351 )

Mawdsley, Jonathan R., 2018, New records and diagnostic notes on large carpenter bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: genus Xylocopa Latreille), from the Amazon River basin of South America, Insecta Mundi 631, pp. 1-15 : 4

Xylocopa (Neoxylocopa) aurulenta ( Fabricius 1804: 351)

Fig. 3

Known distribution. Brazil (Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Guapore, Minas Gerais, Pará, Rio Branco, Rondônia), Guyana, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname ( Hurd 1978: 48). Type locality: “America meridionali” ( Fabricius 1804: 351).

Material examined. Brazil: Amazonas: Tapuruquara , X.1954, A. Aguirre (1 ♀), VI.1963, L. Guidani (58 ♀), Tefé , XI.1959 (1 ♀) ; Pará: Belem, X.1954, O. Rego (1 ♀), X.1955 (1 ♀), 6.X.1954 (1 ♀), XI.1960 (1 ♀), Brancanca, 22.III.1956, M. C. Oliveira (1 ♀), Curusamba, Óbidos, VII.1955, J. Brazilino (1 ♀), 1.VIII.1954, J. Brazilino (1 ♀), Fordlândia, I.1956, R. Damageno (1 ♀), Mosqueiro, 29.VIII.1954, N. Cerqueira (1 ♀) .

Notes. This species belongs to a well-defined South American species group whose females have orange pubescence on the mesosoma. Moure (1949) provides a key to several species in this group, which however does not include X. (N.) aurulenta . Females of this species can be readily separated from those of the other Amazon basin species in this group by the lack of orange pubescence on the first metasomal tergite.

Figures

Figures 1–13. Dorsal habitus photographs of pinned, preserved specimens of females of Xylocopa (Neoxylocopa) species from the Amazon River basin, from the USNM collection. 1) X. (N.) aeneipennis. 2) X. (N.) amazonica. 3) X. (N.) aurulenta. 4) X. (N.) carbonaria. 5) X. (N.) cearensis. 6) X. (N.) fimbriata. 7) X. (N.) frontalis. 8) X. (N.) grisescens. 9) X. (N.) hirsutissima. 10) X. (N.) orthogonaspis. 11) X. (N.) similis. 12) X. (N.) suspecta. 13) X. (N.) tegulata.