Accipiter minullus tropicalis Reichenow, 1898: 139

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 : 16-17

Accipiter minullus tropicalis Reichenow, 1898: 139 .

Now: Accipiter minullus tropicalis Reichenow, 1898 . See Peters (1931: 222).

Lectotype: ZMB 31899 , skin, female, adult, collected by Oscar Neumann at Tanga, 03.[1893].

Paratype: ZMB 23542 (Fischer no. 144), mount, male, juvenile, collected in the Witu area , 10.11.[1877] .

Paratype: ZMB 79.77 (Fischer no. 604), skin, female, adult, collected at “Usegua”, 06.[1882] .

Debatable Paratype: ZMB 32896 , skin, male, adult, collected by Oscar Neumann at Kahe, 14.01.[1895] .

Debatable Paratype: ZMB 79.75 , skin, female, adult, collected by W.L.H. von der Marwitz at Marangu, 19.02.[1895] .

Debatable Paratype: ZMB 79.76 , skin, female, adult, collected by R. Böhm at “Qua Mpara”, 20.07.1883 .

Debatable Paratype: ZMB 32897 , skin, female, juvenile, collected by O. Neumann at “Kibosho”, 05.01.[1895] .

Type locality: East Africa , from the original description, ascertained as Tanga [Tanga Region, Tanzania] the locality of the lectotype.

Remarks: In the original description, no type was chosen, nor were inventory numbers for specimens given; only the locality “Ostafrika” (East Africa) was mentioned. Therefore, all specimens of this species from that region housed at the ZMB in 1898 are regarded as types for A. m. tropicalis. All the above listed types were also mentioned for A. m. tropicalis in Reichenow (1901), and were identified by their collecting locality, month and collector. Only ZMB 32897 is not included in Reichenow (1901). It is unknown whether Reichenow regarded that juvenile female as belonging to A. m. tropicalis. Further specimens listed in Reichenow (1901) cannot be included in the type series as it is unknown where they are housed and when they were collected.

There is considerable uncertainty concerning the subspecific differentiation of Accipiter minullus (Daudin) (see Dickinson & Remsen 2013; del Hoyo & Collar 2014; Gill et al. 2023). Furthermore, the distribution of the proposed subspecies tropicalis is also unclear. Del Hoyo & Collar (2014) give Somalia, coastal Kenya to Mozambique for A. m. tropicalis. However, many of the specimens used for the description of the subspecies were collected inland, west to the DR Congo (Qua Mpara). In addition to Reichenow (1898, 1901), Neumann (1899: 43) explicitly wrote that ZMB 31899, ZMB 32896, and ZMB 79.77 show the characteristics of A. m. tropicalis, with a brighter back, in contrast to the distribution in del Hoyo & Collar (2014). Due to missing data we cannot determine the distribution of specimens with characters given by Reichenow (1898, 1901) for that subspecies. However as a coastal distribution is generally accepted (see White 1965 and del Hoyo & Collar 2014), ZMB 23542, ZMB 31899 as well as ZMB 79.77 are the ones most suitably attributable to subspecies tropicalis. Stresemann (1923) had earlier designated ZMB 31899 as the lectotype for this species and restricted the type locality to Tanga [Tanga, Tanga Region, Tanzania].