Abstract
A series of recent papers has compiled brief biographies and listed the scientific publications and taxa proposed for a number of bee researchers (Rasmussen et al. 2007; Zuparko 2007; Rasmussen & Ascher 2008; Rasmussen et al. 2009; Rasmussen 2012; Rasmussen et al. 2013). Unfortunately five taxa attributed in the original publication to Vachal were overlooked in the recent review of his taxonomic work (Rasmussen 2012). Whereas these five names for halictine bees appeared with brief Latin descriptions in the publication by Kohl (1905), all other hymenopteran taxa described by Kohl in this paper had descriptions in German. At least one of the halictine names has been attributed to Kohl (Warncke, 1984), but based on the fact that 1) Kohl gave Vachal the authorship (as “J. Vachal n. sp.”) and 2) the five descriptions are in a different language from the taxa described by Kohl in the same paper, these five names should all be referred to Vachal as pointed out by Ebmer (1976). The paper by Kohl (1905) lists all of the Hymenoptera collected from the surroundings of the snow-capped stratovolcano Mount Erciyes (Erciyes Dag, as Erdschias) of Kayseri Province in Turkey, the highest mountain of central Anatolia. Bee localities visited by the expedition include Bos Tepe and Ewlije-Dagh south of Kayseri and Yilanli Dag (as Illany-Dagh) west of Kayseri. “Bussara (vel Bussana)” is not listed in the gazetteer introducing the study or in Penther (1906), but is possible Bursa in northwest Turkey (Ebmer 2000). Thus, Rasmussen (2012) should be amended to reflect that Vachal described 791 new species (not 786). In addition Table 2 listing the collectors of specimens described by Vachal as new taxa should be amended to include: Penther, Arnold (1865–1931): Turkey (Erciyes and vicinity, “Bussara (vel Bussana)?” (probably Bursa)).