Nectarinia melanogastra G.A. Fischer & Reichenow, 1884b: 181

Frahnert, Sylke, Turner, Donald A. & Bracker, Cordula, 2023, Type specimens and type localities of birds (Aves) collected by Gustav Adolf Fischer (1848 - 1886) in East Africa, Zootaxa 5334 (1), pp. 1-84 : 46

Nectarinia melanogastra G.A. Fischer & Reichenow, 1884b: 181 .

Now: Cinnyris melanogastrus (G.A. Fischer & Reichenow, 1884) ; but see Greenway et al. (1967: 266).

Holotype (missing): ZMB 27394 [B 18646, Fischer no. 782], male, collected at Nguruman, [21.04.1883].

Paratype (missing): ZMB 27395 [B 18646, Fischer no. 783], [juvenile male or female] collected at Nguruman, [21.04.1883]. Possible Paratype: AMNH 690932 , male, collected at Nguruman, 04.[18]83 .

Type locality: Nguruman [near the base of the Nguruman Escarpment, Kajiado County, Kenya], from the original description as well as locality of the holotype .

Remarks: In the original description no type was chosen, and there were no inventory numbers for specimens provided, but one specimen and the locality Nguruman were given. Fischer (1884) listed two male specimens collected at the same locality and date for this species. One of them (no. 783) is a juvenile, and neither publication gives any information about the coloration of the specimen. Therefore, ZMB 27394 is regarded as the holotype for this species. ZMB 27395 was listed as a juvenile male in Fischer (1884), but as a female in the catalogue. However, as it was treated as Nectarinia melanogastra by Fischer (1884), the specimen is regarded as a paratype. A further specimen of N. melanogastra is housed in the AMNH (AMNH 690932). This specimen has a collector’s label very similar to those of Fischer found at the ZMB and ZMH, but not identical. The specimen may have been part of Fischer’s private collection (see Reichenow 1878b), and as with the Rothschild collection, it also reached the AMNH. As on the collector’s label the name N. melanogastra as well as the locality Nguruman and date “April 83” is mentioned, the specimen is regarded as a further (now the only available) paratype for this species although it is not mentioned in the published documentation ( Fischer & Reichenow 1884b; Fischer 1884) as well as in LeCroy (2010).

Both ZMB 27394 and ZMB 27395 were inventoried at the ZMB in March 1884 and were mounted. In the catalogue it was noted that during the 1950s ZMB 27394 was missing, suggesting that it was destroyed during World War II along with many other mounts in the ornithological collection. The whereabouts of the paratype ( ZMB 27395 ) is unknown, and it seems probable that it was also destroyed during World War II.

On 21 April 1883, Fischer was approaching the foot of the Nguruman Escarpment (on his way to Naivasha) and was in Masailand at c. 2°05’S, 36°15’E.