Myzantha melanotis F.E. Wilson

Mary, 2011, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (348), pp. 1-193 : 161-162

[ Myzantha melanotis F.E. Wilson ]

Myzantha melanotis F.E. Wilson, 1911: 124 (one of the Mallee districts, northwest Victoria).

Now Manorina flavigula melanotis (F.E. Wilson, 1911) . See Salomonsen, 1967: 443, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 269–273, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 617.

COMMENTS: No type was designated in the original description, which was based on three specimens. Two syntypes are in NMV. One of these, R.5039, adult male, collected north of Kow Plains (35.14S, 141.22E), Victoria, Australia, on 8 September 1911, by F.E. Wilson, was designated lectotype of Myzantha melanotis by Schodde and Mason (1999: 273) ; the other, R.5040, female, with the same data, by this action became a paralectotype (W. Longmore, personal commun.). The AMNH specimen, AMNH 694538 , formerly considered a syntype, by the same action also became a paralectotype. It has been so marked and remains in the type collection .

Paralectotype AMNH 694538, an adult male with the same data as the other two specimens in the type series, came from the Mathews Collection via the Rothschild Collection and bears Wilson’s original label marked ‘‘Co Type,’’ a Mathews type label marked ‘‘Co-Type’’ with a reference to Wilson’s description, and an AMNH type label, marked ‘‘Cotype,’’ filled in by Charles Vaurie, probably when F. Salomonsen was at AMNH working on the Meliphagidae . I did not find the specimen listed in Mathews’ catalog.

The form melanotis has variously been accorded species status, as in Salomonsen (1967: 443), Christidis and Boles (2008: 185– 191), and Higgins et al. (2008: 617), who cited mitochondrial DNA studies. Schodde and Mason (1999: 269–273) discussed melanotis and gave a summary of treatments and their reasons for considering it a subspecies of M. flavigula . Further study is needed.