Lamprocorax metallicus sapphire Mathews

Lamprocorax metallicus sapphire Mathews, 1912a: 437 (Mount Sapphire, Queensland).

Now Aplonis metallica metallica (Temminck (1824). See Mathews, 1930: 852; Amadon, 1956: 22; 1962a: 85; Schodde and Mason, 1999: 656; Dickinson, 2003: 651; and Craig and Feare, 2009: 717.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 667255, adult male, collected on Mount Sophia (= Sapphire), 17.10S, 145.52E (USBGN, 1957), Queensland, Australia, on 6 November 1899, by E. Olive (based on handwriting and date). From the Mathews Collection (no. 3628) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews cited his catalog number of the holotype and gave the range as ‘‘North Queensland.’’ In addition to the original label and Mathews and Rothschild type labels, the holotype bears a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1926: pl. 580, opp. p. 283; text pp. 290–291); the figured adult male collected on 6 November 1899 and listed as Metallopsar metallicus is described and confirmed as the type of sapphire.

The following specimens are considered paratypes as they were collected in ‘‘ North Queensland’ ’ and cataloged by Mathews prior to the end of 1911: Mount Sapphire, AMNH 667253, 667254, 667256–667259 (Mathews catalog nos. 3624–3627, 3629, 3630), six males, October–November 1899, collected by E. Olive (based on handwriting and dates). Cairns, AMNH 667261, 667263, 667264 (3620, 3622, 3623), October–Novem-ber 1908, one male, one immature male, one female, obtained from P. Schrader; AMNH 667265 (3621), one female, September 1902, collected by W. Vercens (?). Cape York, AMNH 667318 (9791), AMNH 667322 (9792), one male, one female, collected 1 September 1911, by J.P. Rogers; AMNH 667319–667321, 667323, 667324 (7136–7140), three immature males, two females, collected in November and December 1868, received from T. Thorpe .

Olive collected at a number of Queensland localites, but Mathews apparently only included in sapphire his Mount Sapphire specimens. Robinson and Laverock (1900) reported on this collection and equated Mount Sapphire with Mount Sophia.