Amegilla scymna

Tilcayo Cats original · Amegilla · Sources and editorial assessment · Originals retention rule

Amegilla scymna is a name attached to a female bee from Queensland described by Gribodo in 1894. Its identity remained unresolved in the 2020 Australian Amegilla revision: the authors could not match the type specimen to any other species or to their other examined material.

The name-bearing specimen

The female is held in the natural history museum in Genoa. It has uniformly ochre-brown hair on the upper thorax and abdomen, a pale orange hind-leg pollen brush and no black hair band at the front of the second upper abdominal plate. Pale marks beside and above the central face plate are absent.

Some diagnostic features would lead to A. flava in the revision's key, but the facial markings, colouring and distribution did not agree. The authors therefore did not treat that resemblance as a resolved identification. This uncertainty concerns the application of a scientific name; it is not evidence that the bee has become extinct.