Semioptera wallacei var. H almaherae Salvadori

Semioptera wallacei var. Halmaherae Salvadori, 1881: 573 (Halmahera).

Now Semioptera wallacii halmaherae Salvadori, 1881 . See Mayr, 1962d: 188; Gilliard, 1969: 121– 126; Frith and Beehler, 1998: 417–427; and Frith and Frith, 2009b: 484–485.

SYNTYPE: AMNH 678719, [female plumage], collected on Halmahera Island, 01.00N, 128.00E (White and Bruce, 1986: 490), Moluccas, Indonesia, undated, by A.A. Bruijn’s hunters. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: When Salvadori named halmaherae, he did not designate a type; rather, he listed 50 syntypes in his own and in other collections, with each identified by a letter. The above syntype is identified as specimen ‘‘t’’’ on the original label and on the Rothschild label. It has not previously been recognized as a type. There are an additional eight syntypes in MSNG (see Arbocco et al., 1979: 247) and 11 in RMNH (see Dekker and Quaisser, 2006: 61).

For discussions about the spelling of this specific name, see McAlpine (1979: 108–110), LeCroy (1983), LeCroy (1988), LeCroy and Bock (1989), Mlíkovský (1989), and for the decision on conservation of the spelling Semioptera wallacii, see ICZN (1990).

‘‘Pajahe,’’ written on the original label, is the local name for this species (C. Violani, personal commun.).