Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae
Author
Mary
Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Ornithology) American Museum of Natural History
text
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
2011
2011-04-29
2011
348
1
193
journal article
0003-0090
Myzomela nigra westralensis
Mathews
Myzomela nigra westralensis
Mathews, 1912a: 396
(West
Australia
).
Now
Sugomel niger
(Gould, 1838)
. See
Salomonsen, 1967: 364
,
Schodde and Mason, 1999: 331
,
Driskell and Christidis, 2004: 955
,
Christidis and Boles, 2008: 186
, 188, and
Higgins et al., 2008: 636–637
.
HOLOTYPE
:
AMNH 693407
, adult male, collected at Day Dawn,
1400 ft
,
27.29S
,
117.51E
(
USBGN
, 1957),
Western Australia
,
Australia
, on
25 July 1903
, by F.L. [Whitlock] (no. 282).
From
the
Mathews Collection
(no. 5321) via the Rothschild Collection.
COMMENTS: Mathews cited his catalog number of the
holotype
in the original description; the specimen bears, in addition to Whitlock’s label and Mathews and Rothschild type labels, a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in
Mathews (1924
: pl. 516, opp. p. 317, text p. 323) where it is confirmed as the type of
westralensis
. This single specimen of
niger
was acquired from WAM (no. 5828) in 1910.
Mathews (1912a: 396)
gave the range of
westralensis
as ‘‘
Western Australia
.’’ Three additional Western Australian specimens from the Mathews collection came to AMNH and I consider them
paratypes
:
AMNH 693403
(Mathews no. 3942), immature, Bore Well, East Murch- ison,
8 September 1909
;
AMNH 693404
(3941), adult male, East Murchison,
27 September 1909
;
AMNH 693405
(no. not found), nestling, East Murchison,
September 1909
.
Although this species was included in the genus
Certhionyx
by
Schodde and Mason (1999: 331)
, they suggested the subgenus
Sugomel
, a generic name introduced by
Mathews (1922a: 7)
, with
type
‘‘
Myzomela nigra ashby
[sic].’’ Subsequently,
Mathews (1924: 328)
referred to this species as
Sugomel niger
, showing that he considered it masculine. Molecular studies by
Driskell and Christidis (2004)
found that the three species included in
Certhionyx
by Schodde and Mason fell into three different clades, and
Christidis and Boles (2008: 186
, 188) adopted for
niger
the monotypic genus
Sugomel
.
Higgins et al. (2008: 636)
suggested that
Sugomel
is neuter because it ends in a Latin neuter noun, without explaning this. Mathews might have been equally likely to have based his name on Greek roots meaning either ‘‘black’’ (melas) or ‘‘honey’’ (meli). Because the derivation of
Sugomel
is questionable and because Mathews considered the name masculine, Art. 30.2.3 of the Code (ICZN, 1999: 36) is applicable and the species name should be
S. niger
, as was correctly listed by
Christidis and Boles (2008: 186
. 188).