NOTES ON THE NOMENCLATURE AND SYNONYMY OF OLD WORLD MELECTINE AND ANTHOPHORINE BEES (HYMENOPTERA, ANTHOPHORIDAE) by M. A. LIEFTINCK "Kaliiste", Rhenen, The Netherlands Abstract Tetralonioidella Strand, 1914, is a forgotten name that has fallen into oblivion ever since it was defined and published. The name was given to an anthophorid bee of the Melectinae, which was described in some detail from Taiwan. As a validly proposed name it is resur-rected, its monobasic type-species, T. hoozana Strand, 1914, being recognized as a distinct species, congeneric with, but differing specifically from, all described taxa formerly placed in Protomelissa Friese, 1914 (syn. nov.) or Callomelecta Cockerell, 1926. All ten presently known species are (re)defined, arranged in a key and, where necessary, illustrated by the author. Included are T. nepalensis spec. nov. (Nepal) and fukienensis spec. nov. (SE China), the latter being the first of its genus recorded from the Chinese continent. A redescription and figures are given of the little known holotype of T. habropodae (Cockerell, 1929), from Thailand, while the only known specimen of T. indescens (Friese, 1914), from Taiwan, is probably lost but considered conspecific with T. hoozana Strand from the same island. A second chapter deals mainly with six undoubtedly validly proposed specific names given by Newman (1835) to trivial variations of Melecta albifrons (Forster, 1771), collected in England. Two of these, alecto and megaera, were first described as new by Newman but quite accidentally proposed also by Lieftinck (1974), to denote two new species found in the Near East. These new homonyms are here replaced by M. diligens nom. nov. and mun-dula nom. nov., respectively. — Lastly, in the anthophorine host bee genus Habropoda F. Smith, the unique type of H. krishna Bingham, 1909, proved to be conspecific with H. apa-telia Lieftinck, 1974, the last-mentioned name thus being placed in the synonymy of H. krishna Bingham. Tetralonioidella Strand, 1914, a parasitic Oriental bee genus re-instated Since publication of my revision of the melec-tine genus Protomelissa Friese, 1914 (see Lief-tinck, 1972: 267—282, figs. 1—16, pi. 1 figs. 1, 2, with map), some important nomenclatural changes on the genus and species level have again become necessary. As pointed out in that last paper, Friese's diagnosis of Protomelissa was published in June, 1914. Since the two Tai-wanese melectines Anthophora sauteri Friese (original description published 15 May, 1911), and Melecta formosana Cockerell (the same dated March, 1911), turned out later to be con-specific, formosana became the type-species of Protomelissa. However, at that time it was still unknown that few months earlier (April — May, 1914), E. Strand had already published notes and a description of a very puzzling bee, like-wise found in Taiwan (Formosa) which he "conditionally" named Tetralonioidella, with the monobasic type-species T. hoozana Strand. As we will see, the unique type of this bee is congeneric with both Protomelissa Friese and the much later described genus Callomelecta Cockerell, 1926 (type-species C. pendleburyi Cockerell, from the Malay Peninsula). The original account of Tetralonioidella hoo-zana Strand was published in German and, for a better understanding of the situation, is here copied verbatim under that species. By the ab-sence of a female, the unique male was mistaken for some non-parasitic, pollen-collecting mem-ber of the Eucerinae presumably related to Tetralonia. Unfortunately, this resulted in the choice of that whimsical generic (or subgeneric) name Tetralonioidella which is, of course, a ver-itable misnomer. It is not strictly a nomen obli-tum since the whole description was simply 269
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