Abstract
In this paper the primary types of Centris bees described by the British entomologist Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell deposited in the Natural History Museum (London) and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Oxford) in the United Kingdom, as well as in the United States National Museum (Washington), American Museum of Natural History (New York), the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (Philadelphia), and in the California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco) in the United States were studied. To stabilize the application of the name C. lepeletieri (= C. haemorrhoidalis (Fabricius)), a lectotype is designated. The study of the primary types allow proposing the revalidation of C. cisnerosi nom. rev. from the synonymy of C. agilis Smith, C. nitida geminata nom. rev. from C. facialis Mocsáry, C. rufulina nom. rev. from C. varia (Erichson), C. semilabrosa nom. rev. from C. terminata Smith and C. triangulifera nom. rev. from C. labrosa Friese. Centris bakeri syn. nov., C. bimaculata carrikeri syn. nov., C. fusciventris matoensis syn. nov., C. heterodonta syn. nov. and C. elegans grenadensis syn. nov. are proposed as a new junior synonyms of C. varia, C. claripennis Friese nom. rev., C. caurensis, C. dentata Smith and C. elegans Smith, respectively. Centris ruae is withdrawn from the synonymy of C. transversa Pérez and proposed as a new junior synonym of C. nitida Smith. In addition, a lectotype for C. buchholzi Herbst (= C. wilmattae) is designated. Information on the repository of the lectotype of C. lepeletieri and images of most primary types studied here are also provided.
Highlights
Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell (1866‒1948) was a British entomologist, systematic biologist and one of the most important melittologist of all time (Engel & Davis 2012)
According to Cockerell (1949), he divided his collection of Neotropical bees in two parts; one was sent to the NMNH and the other to the AMNH
All primary types currently housed at CAS, except for C. hoffmanseggiae davidsoni, were collected by the American entomologist and curator of the Department of Entomology of the California Academy of Sciences Edward Payson Van Duzee (1861‒1940) (MacFarland 1940)
Summary
Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell (1866‒1948) was a British entomologist, systematic biologist and one of the most important melittologist of all time (Engel & Davis 2012) His contributions to science began during the early years of his youth. Throughout his more than four decades of activity, Cockerell published more than 3900 articles (Zuparko 2007), becoming one of the most proliferous scientists of European Journal of Taxonomy 618: 1–47 (2020). Cockerell was interested in every phase of natural history, and this broad interest and enthusiasm continued until his death (Michener 1948) He wrote extensively on land snails, moths, slugs, fungi, mollusks, fossil insects, fish scales, sunflower taxonomy, genetics and paleobotany (Michener 1948; Gardner 1999), but his most numerous contributions were on scale insects and bees
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