Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 6. Passeriformes: Prunellidae, Turdidae, Orthonychidae, Timaliidae, Paradoxornithidae, Picathartidae, And Polioptilidae
Author
Mary
Division of Vertebrate American Museum of (lecroy @
Author
Croy
Zoology (Ornithology) of Natural History @ amnh. org)
Author
History, Bulletin Of The American Museum Of Natural
Author
At, Central Park West
Number Issued
Author
Street, Th
292, 132 pp. May 5, 2005
Author
York, New
.
Author
Ny
text
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
2005
2005-05-05
2005
292
1
132
journal article
0003-0090
Monticola bensoni
Farkas
Monticola bensoni
Farkas, 1971: 85
(Ankarefu, Antinosy Cy., S. W.
Madagascar
).
Now
Monticola bensoni
Farkas, 1971
. See
Goodman and Weigt, 2002
.
HOLOTYPE
:
AMNH 580865
, adult male, collected at Ankarefo,
Antinosy Cy.
,
Madagascar
, by Joseph Thomas Last. From the Rothschild Collection.
COMMENTS: In the original description, Farkas cited the AMNH numbers of the
holotype
and the
paratype
, AMNH 580866, an adult female collected by Last at the same locality. Only these
two specimens
came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection.
The collector’s name as written on the Rothschild label appears to be ‘‘Zaast’’ and was so published by Farkas. In a fascinating piece of ornithological detective work,
Collar and Tattersall (1987)
and
Collar (1999)
have uncovered details of Last’s travels and the collecting date and locality coordinates of the
two specimens
listed above. They showed that Ankarefo (modern spelling) was at about 238219S, 448489E and that the
type
material was collected in either 1891 or 1892. They also listed a bibliography of five articles written by Last about his travels and collections in
Madagascar
. Rothschild apparently bought specimens, either from Last directly or through a dealer. The name on the Rothschild label must have been misinterpreted from a list accompanying the specimens.
See
Goodman and Weigt (2002)
for the results of their molecular studies and a summary of previous taxonomic treatments.
Dickinson (2003: 688)
treated
bensoni
as a subspecies of
Pseudocossyphus sharpei
and placed it in the subfamily
Saxicolinae
, family
Muscicapidae
.