Dendrophila lilacea Whitehead

Pachycephalidae, Aegithalidae, Remizidae, Paridae, Sittidae, Neosittidae, Certhiidae, Rhabdornithidae, Climacteridae, Dicaeidae, Pardalotidae, Nectariniidae, And & Lecroy, Mary, 2010, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 8. Passeriformes:, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2010 (333), pp. 1-178 : 84

Dendrophila lilacea Whitehead

Dendrophila lilacea Whitehead, 1897: 49 (Samar) .

Now Sitta oenochlamys lilacea ( Whitehead, 1897) . See Dickinson, 2006: 235, Dickinson et al., 2006b: 293, and Harrap, 2008b: 143–144.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 684102, male, and AMNH 684103, female, collected at Bonga, Samar Island, Philippines on 21 June 1896, by John Whitehead (nos. B.653 and B.654, respectively). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Whitehead applied the name to Samar birds but did not designate a type; therefore, all Samar specimens would be syntypes. The above two specimens are the only Samar specimens that came to AMNH and they are marked as ‘‘Type s’’ and ‘‘Type ♀ ’’ and initialed by Whitehead. Hartert (1920a: 440) listed them both as types (5 syntypes) and both bear Rothschild type labels. Because Whitehead applied the name to Samar birds, specimens from other islands within his given range (Leyte and Basilan islands) would not have type status. The type locality, Bonga, is shown on the map in Whitehead (1899: 83) and noted by Dickinson et al. (1991: 416) to be ‘‘probably at or near Bagacay, 12.50N, 125.13E.’’

Dickinson (2006: 235), and Dickinson et al. (2006b: 293) discussed whether to consider S. oenochlamys a species separate from S. frontalis , with lilacea a subspecies of S. oenochlamys , and pointed out the need for a molecular study to clarify the relationships among the various Philippine forms of Sitta . Harrap (2008b: 143–144) retained species status for oenochlamys .