European Journal of Taxonomy
1028 (1) - Pages 1-144Alfred Russel Wallace travelled across the Malay Archipelago between 1854–1862, collecting more than 100 000 natural history specimens. Amongst them, the bees were acquired by William Wilson Saunders who sent them to Frederick Smith for description, and between 1857–1865 Smith described 89 bee species from this material. Here, we present a photographic catalogue of Smith’s Wallacean type material for which material is present in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History collection, totalling 84 species. Lectotype designations are formally published for 13 species, as well as for two additional species described by Heinrich Friese. New synonymies are formally made: Megachile clotho Smith, 1860 is synonymised with Megachile tuberculata Smith, 1857 syn. nov.; Megachile placida Smith, 1862 is synoymised with Megachile foliata Smith, 1860 syn. nov.; Megachile albocaudata Friese, 1903 is synonymised with Megachile terminalis Smith, 1858 syn. nov.; Xylocopa insularis Smith, 1857 and Xylocopa bangkaensis Friese, 1903 are synonymised with Xylocopa caerulea (Fabricius, 1804) syn. nov.; and Xylocopa dormeyeri Enderlein, 1909, Xylocopa caeruleiformis Meade-Waldo, 1914, and Xylocopa caeruleiformis var. fusca Meade-Waldo, 1916 are synonymised with Xylocopa tumida Friese, 1903 syn. nov., this being the senior name for the taxon referred to as Xylocopa insularis sensu auctorum. A neotype is designated for Bombus coeruleus Fabricius, 1804 in order to preserve the current usage of this name (as a species of Xylocopa). The presentation of this illustrated type catalogue highlights both the extraordinary ground-breaking work of Wallace and Smith, but also the paucity of revisionary work on bees in Southeast Asia which has been carried out since then, particularly in the Wallacean region; it is hoped that this catalogue will facilitate and stimulate future work in this area.
Malaysia, Indonesia, solitary bees, historical collection, synonymy
