Dryoscopus nigerrimus Reichenow, 1879b: 114

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 : 27

Dryoscopus nigerrimus Reichenow, 1879b: 114 .

Now: Laniarius nigerrimus ( Reichenow, 1879b) . See Dickinson & Christidis (2014); Finch et al. (2016: 74); but see also Mayr & Greenway (1960: 329).

Holotype: 24256 (B 15705, Fischer no. 244), skin, former mount, male, collected at Kipini, 15.07.1878.

Type locality: Kipini [Kipini, Tana River County, Kenya], from the original description and locality of the holotype .

Remarks: In the original description, no type was chosen and there were no inventory numbers for specimens provided, but measurements for one specimen and the locality “Kipini” were given. As the given measurements are identical to those in Fischer & Reichenow (1879), no. 244 is the holotype. In the entry catalogue (B 15705) the specimen was mentioned as type for Dryoscopus aterrimus, Reichenow (an error for nigerrimus ?).

Stresemann (1947) was of the opinion that nigerrimus merely represented an all-black form of Laniarius ferrugineus sublacteus (Cassin) , but Turner et al. (2011) discussed the problem, giving several possibilities for the status of L. nigerrimus (Reichenow) : a) the all-black birds occurring on Manda Island alongside L. a. sublacteus possess vocalisations unlike any form of L aethiopicus (Gmelin) , and thus require comparison with the types of L. nigerrimus and erlangeri (Reichenow); also that b) should the all-black birds from southern Somalia south to Manda Island and Kipini require a higher taxonomic status (as the vocal evidence suggests) than as races of L. aethiopicus , the nomenclature of these East African birds would require revision; c) the all-black birds may revert to L. nigerrimus , while d) the black-and-white birds in southern Somalia would revert to L. a. somaliensis (Reichenow), and that the taxonomic status of erlangeri as defined by Nguembock et al. (2008) would require re-evaluation as that name was originally used by Reichenow for an all-black bird. Finch et al. (2016) argued for separate species status for Laniarius nigerrimus .