Nomenclatural issues in the orchid bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossina) and an updated catalogue
Author
Nemésio, André
Author
Rasmussen, Claus
text
Zootaxa
2011
3006
1
42
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.203410
b2aa6957-06d8-4386-b7f6-8a9c1bf0481f
1175-5326
203410
6.
Euplusia yepezi
Moure, 2000
, nom. nud.
Euplusia yepezi
Moure, 2000
: Errata et Addendum [inserted as a separate sheet in Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, 17 (2)].
Moure (1999)
published a note on the taxonomy of
Eufriesea
(as
Euplusia
), describing new species and taking nomenclatural acts. One of these acts was to consider
Eulaema nigrita raymondi
(
Schrottky, 1907
)
as a valid species of
Eufriesea
(
Moure 1999: 94–95 incorrectly spelled as “
raymoni
”
). Following this,
Moure (1999)
provided a detailed description of the onomatophore [deposited at MPSP with label 102.942,
lectotype
of
Centris nigrita
(Lep.)
var.
raymondi
Schrottky, 1907
(
Eulaema nigrita raymondi
)—photographs of this specimen and labels made available by
Nemésio 2009a
: 39].
Nevertheless,
Moure (2000)
later corrected his interpretations concerning this species through a sheet inserted in the journal “Revista Brasileira de Zoologia”, volume 17, number 2 (no page number), titled “Errata et Addendum”, which was distributed on the 30th of June, 2000. In this “Errata et Addendum”,
Moure (2000)
mentioned that a serious mistake had been made—he did not mention if this mistake was his or the printers’—and reinterpreted
Centris nigrita
(Lep.)
var.
raymondi
Schrottky, 1907
as
Eulaema
(
Apeulaema
)
nigrita
Lepeletier
de Saint Fargeau, 1841.
Moure (2000)
stated that the rest of the text below
Euplusia raymondi
on pages 94–96 of the original paper (
Moure 1999
) referred to the description of a new species,
Euplusia yepezi
.
Moure (2000)
also stated that the abstract should be corrected to include a paragraph stating that “one male specimen from Rancho Grande, Aragua,
Venezuela
, is described as
Euplusia yepezi
sp. n.
…”.
This “Errata et Addendum” by
Moure (2000)
, however, was overlooked by many subsequent authors, as
Nemésio & Silveira (2007: 886)
pointed out, and
Eufriesea yepezi
(
Moure, 2000
)
was listed neither by
Ramírez
et al.
(2002)
nor by
Roubik & Hanson (2004)
in their checklists.
Moure
et al.
(2007)
, in turn, considered this species as a junior synonym of
Eufriesea venezolana
(
Schrottky, 1913
)
, a position followed by
Nemésio (2009a: 232)
in his checklist. A re-study of the
Code
, its criteria for nomina availability and the dates of publication of Moure’s nomenclatural acts, however, show that this interpretation is incorrect and that
Euplusia yepezi
should be considered a nomen nudum.
Article 21.6
of the Code, expressly states that if the date of publication specified in a work is a range of dates,
the work is to be dated from the final day of the range
...”. (our bold). It obviously means that the date of publication of
Euplusia yepezi
is 2000, not 1999, because the publication was interrupted and continued at a later date— and in particular the nomen of the species itself and a tentative onatomophore were only published in 2000. This date, however, introduces a new problem, as the following is mandatory for names published
after 1999
:
“
Article 16.4
. Species-group names: fixation of name-bearing
types
to be explicit. Every new specific and subspecific name published after 1999, except a new replacement name (a nomen novum), for which the name-bearing
type
of the nominal taxon it denotes is fixed automatically [Art. 72.7], must be accompanied in the original publication [Art. 16.4.1] by the explicit fixation of a
holotype
, or
syntypes
, for the nominal taxon…”.
Moure (2000)
did not fix a
holotype
. When
Moure (2000)
stated that “one male specimen from Rancho Grande, Aragua,
Venezuela
, is described as
Euplusia yepezi
sp. n.
…” the assumption that this specimen is the
holotype
is implicit, not explicit. This assumption becomes confusing when
Moure (2000, last line of the “Errata et Addendum”)
textually stated that (translated from Portuguese) “page 95 [in
Moure 1999
] and subsequent ones remain as they are”.
Moure (1999: 95)
explicitly stated (translated from Portuguese) “a specimen from Rancho Grande,
1100 m
, Aragua,
Venezuela
, [collected] on
21-VIII-1974
, F. Fernando Y. and C. J. Rosales
leg
. Received from Dr. Yepes when of [my] visit to Maracay in 1980
and compared to the
type
at the Museu de Zoologia of the Universidade de São Paulo”. Therefore
Moure (1999
,
2000
) did not explicitly consider the specimen from
Venezuela
as the onomatophore nor explicitly designated this specimen as onomatophore as mandatory by the
Code
for species described after 1999.
By maintaining the original paper as it was, from page 95 onward,
Moure (2000)
contradicted
Moure (1999)
and did not explicitly designate an onomatophore, as the specimen implicitly regarded as the onomatophore in
Moure (2000)
was confusingly compared to a “
type
” at the MPSP. Given Moure’s (2000) changes, this MPSP
type
could not be interpreted as the
type
of
Centris nigrita
var.
raymondi
Schrottky, 1907
because
Moure (2000)
changed what was written at the end of page 94, removing the reference to the
type
specimen of
C. nigrita
var.
raymondi
. Thus, this “
type
” specimen compared to the specimen from Rancho Grande,
Venezuela
, is a non-explicit specimen under the new wording provided by
Moure (2000)
.
Our conclusion is that
Euplusia yepezi
is a nomen nudum and the specimen deposited at the DZUP should not be considered a primary onomatophore.