Centris (Aphemisia) plumipes Smith, 1854

Vivallo, Felipe, 2020, Lectotype designations taxonomic notes and new synonymies in some species of the bee genus Centris Fabricius, 1804 described by Frederick Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Zootaxa 4729 (2), pp. 151-176 : 154

Centris (Aphemisia) plumipes Smith, 1854

Centris plumipes Smith, 1854 . 373.

Type data: Smith (1854) did not specify the number of specimens he used to describe this species but he included at least one male and one female collected in Santarém, northern Brazil. Baker (1993) mentioned that the type series was composed of two females and one male and that the NHMUK accession book indicates that they were part of material collected by the British naturalist and explorer Henry Walter Bates (1825–1892) “on the banks of the Rio Tapajos”. In 1848, Bates and Wallace made a trip to the Amazon to collect specimens. At the end of May 1848, both arrived in Pará state, Brazil, near the mouth of the Amazon River. Bates stayed 11 years, exploring the Amazon Valley, where he collected several thousand species, mostly insects ( Bates, 1863; Van Wyhe, 2014). Among the numerous specimens collected would have been those used by Smith (1854) to describe C. plumipes .

A single female of the type series was found at NHMUK and is here designated the lectotype. The specimen has the following data label: Type H. T. [red-rimmed circular label, printed]\ Braz Tapajoz [circular label, handwritten]\ B.M. TYPE HYM. [printed] 17B.922 [handwritten]\ plumipes Sm. Type [handwritten]\ Centris plumipes, Smith. /type. [handwritten]. Additional specimens belonging of the type series were not located and their current status is unknown, but according to Baker (1993) they are also housed at NHMUK.

Type locality: Brazil: Pará state: Tapajós (see below) .

Centris (Aphemisia) xanthosara Moure, 2002 . 258 (unnecessary nom. nov. for C. plumipes Smith, 1854 ).

Comments: Moure (2002) mentioned the existence of a type series of this species, but Moure et al. (2007) indicated erroneously that it was described based on a single female specimen collected in Santarém. According to the NHMUK accession book and the information of the lectotype’s label, the specimens were collected in Tapajos River, not in Santarém as indicated by Smith (1854). Centris plumipes was correctly interpreted by Ayala (2002), Silveira et al. (2002), Moure et al. (2007) and Vivallo et al. (2016).