Pachymelus ( Pachymelopsis ) abessinicus ( Friese, 1912 )

Wood, Thomas J., 2025, A taxonomic update to Pachymelus (Pachymelopsis) Cockerell, with a new species from Ethiopia (Hymenoptera, Apidae), Contributions to Entomology 75 (2), pp. 339-353 : 339-353

Pachymelus ( Pachymelopsis) abessinicus ( Friese, 1912)

Anthophora aethiopica Friese, 1911: 659, ♂ non ♀ nec. Cameron [ Kenya, ZMB, not examined]

Anthophora abessinica Friese, 1912: 89 nom. nov. pro Anthophora aethiopica Friese

Notes.

Eardley (1993) summarised the nomenclatural situation surrounding Friese’s names and designated a male lectotype, as the females described by Friese actually belong to an Amegilla species. This lectotype designation fixed the type locality as “ Br. O. Afrika, Mulango, 1908, Sauberlich [sic] ”. Eardley stated this to refer to Mengo in Uganda. However, consideration of the collector of this specimen must be made to inform this choice.

Günther Albin Säuberlich (1864–1946, https://explore.gnd.network/gnd/1068413840) was an evangelical Lutheran missionary who worked in East Africa on and off between 1888 and 1912 ( Bauer and Hörnlein 2005). Between 1906 and 1912 he was based at Mulango in southern Kenya, which is located at – 1.4272°S, 38.0120°E, approximately 115 km east of Nairobi. The spelling of this place name matches that on the type label, and British East Africa almost invariably refers to modern Kenya, not Uganda, which was most commonly referred to as the Uganda Protectorate or simply Uganda. Kenya must therefore be considered the terra typica, not Uganda. Friese (1911: 660) also mentioned males from Madibura [Madibira] and Murutunguru-Ukerewe [Ukerewe Island] in Deutsch Ost Afrika (= Tanzania), and these are considered valid country records at present.

Distribution.

Kenya and Tanzania ( Friese 1911).