Alauda bicornis, C. L. Brehm, C. L. Brehm

Mlíkovský, Jiří & Frahnert, Sylke, 2011, Type specimens and type localities of birds collected during the Hemprich and Ehrenberg expedition to Lebanon in 1824, Zootaxa 2990, pp. 1-29 : 6-7

Phileremos bicornis C. L. Brehm

Accentor bicornis Hemprich, 1824 [Unpublished label name.] Alauda bicornis Lichtenstein, 1825 [Unpublished manuscript name.] Phileremos bicornis C. L. Brehm, 1842 : col. 504.

Now. Eremophila alpestris bicornis ( C. L. Brehm, 1842) . See Hartert (1905: 263).

Type series. C. L. Brehm (1842) based this species on Alauda bicornis of Hemprich [= label name] and Alauda bilopha Temminck [= Temminck 1823 : pl. 244, fig. 1], which he cited exclusively in the synonymy of his Phileremon bicornis . The reference to Hemprich’s Alauda bicornis means that all 29 specimens listed by Lichtenstein (1825, Nr. 245–273) as Alauda bicornis are syntypes, and that all syntypes of Temmick's Alauda bilopha are also syntypes of P. b i c o r n i s C. L. Brehm.

Hemprich syntypes: Lichtenstein (1825) decided that five of these syntypes should be retained in the ZMB, and offered the remaining 24 syntypes for sale. Subsequently, however, seven of the syntypes were registered into the Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB (see also Lichtenstein 1854: 38 sub Otocoryx [sic!] bilopha ), and therefore they should be in the ZMB. We found only one of them in 2010, the remaining six thus having been lost. Although 22 specimens seem to have been sold by Lichtenstein prior to 1854 (cf. Lichtenstein 1854: 38), we were not able to locate them.

Temminck syntypes: Temminck (1823) based Alauda bilopha on specimens collected by W.P.E.S. Rüppell in Arabia Petraea. We located three such specimens in RMNH (see below) and SMF (54830 and 54831, both collected by E. Rüppell; GBIF 2010). There is, however, no evidence that Temminck saw or included the SMF specimens in his Alauda bilopha . Moreover, it is unknown when SMF obtained these specimens, which are undated ( GBIF 2010). They are thus not included in the type series of Alauda bilopha Temminck or Phileremos bicornis C. L. Brehm.

Lectotype (designated by Hartert 1918: 23): AMNH 457703, ad. 3 (label) or ad. Ƥ ( Vaurie 1951a: 490), collected “vere, Syria ” (label—see Hartert 1918: 23), i.e. “in spring, Syria ” [= on 5–24 July 1824 at Bcharré, Lebanon]. This specimen was labeled as “ Typus ” of Phileremos bicornis C. L. Brehm by Hartert (1918: 23). It is doubtful whether Hartert’s (1918) statement that this specimen is a “ Typus ” of P. bi co r n is is a valid designation of a lectotype (cf. ICZN 1999, Art. 74.5) or whether this simply meant that Hartert considered the specimen a syntype (cf. ICZN 1999, Art. 73.2.1). However, Hartert’s (1918) action was accepted as a valid designation of the lectotype by Vaurie (1951a: 489–490) and LeCroy (2003: 29). If Hartert’s (1918) action is rejected as invalid, then the action by Vaurie (1951a: 489–490) would be sufficient to designate the same specimen as the lectotype. We thus accept here Hartert’s (1918) lectotypification of the specimen AMNH 457703 as valid.

Paralectotype: ZMB 5341, mount, unsexed, collected on an unknown date [= 5–24 July 1824] in “ Syrien ” (label) [= Bcharré, Lebanon].

Paralectotype: RMNH 88890, ad. 3, skin, collected by W.P.E.S. Rüppell in the “Akaba Desert” ( Dekker 2003: 17) [= Arabia Petraea].

Paralectotypes (3; lost): ZMB 5338, 5339, 5340, all collected on an unknown date [= 5–24 July 1824] in “ Syrien ” [= Bcharré, Lebanon] according to the Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB.

Paralectotype (lost): ZMB 5342, collected on an unknown date [= 5–24 July 1824] in “ Libanon ” [= Bcharré, Lebanon] according to the Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB.

Paralectotypes (2; lost): ZMB 5343, 5334. Both said to be “juv.” and collected on an unknown date [= 5–24 July 1824] at “Bischerre” [= Bcharré, Lebanon] according to the Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB.

Type locality. Phileremos bicornis was described from “ Libanon ” ( C. L. Brehm 1842: col. 506). The Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB gave “ Libanon ” for ZMB 5342, and “Bischerre” for ZMB 5343 and 5344. Vaurie (1959b: 42) stated that “the type series was collected on Mount Lebanon by Hemprich and Ehrenberg at the end of June, 1824”, which cannot be correct, because Hemprich and Ehrenberg reached Jabal Lubnān only on 5 July. Type specimens were collected in “M. Libanon, juxta nives” (in Jabal Lubnān, close to the snow) ( Lichtenstein 1825). The location is supported by circannual changes in the presence of snow in Lebanon ( Aouad-Rizk et al. 2005). Hemprich and Ehrenberg could thus have collected these specimens, including the lectotype, only at Bcharré. Hence, here we restrict the type locality of Phileremon bicornis C. L. Brehm to Bcharré, Lebanon, where the lectotype was collected during 5–24 July 1824.

Remarks. C. L. Brehm (1842: col. 504) attributed this species name to Hemprich, but he is its author ( ICZN 1999, Art. 51.1). Giebel (1877: 99) attributed this species to C. L. Brehm (1855a), where the name would be a nomen nudum, because its lacks both description and indication. Hartert (1905: 263) and Vaurie (1951a: 489) attributed the species name to C. L. Brehm (1855b: 122), but Hartert and Steinbacher (1933: 132) corrected the citation to C. L. Brehm (1842), where the name indeed seems to have been published by C. L. Brehm for the first time (see also Vaurie 1959b: 42).