Tringa dorsalis, Licht

Mlíkovský, Jiří & Frahnert, Sylke, 2017, Type specimens and type localities of birds (Aves) collected during F. J. F. Meyen’s circumnavigation in 1830 – 1832, Zootaxa 4250 (1), pp. 1-22 : 7-9

Tringa dorsalis “Licht[enstein]” Burmeister, 1856: 374.

Tringa dorsalis “Lichtenstein” Meyen, 1834a: 107 [Nomen nudum; no description or indication.] Tringa dorsalis “Deppe” Meyen, 1834b: 475 [Nomen nudum; no description or indication.] Tringa dorsalis Lichtenstein, 1835: 29 [Nomen nudum; no description or indication.]

Pelidna dorsalis Lichtenstein, 1854: 92 [Nomen nudum; no description or indication.]

Now: Calidris melanotos (Vieillot, 1819) . See Wetmore (1926: 153), Hellmayr (1932: 394, 1948b: 191).

Syntype: ZMB 12675 ( Lichtenstein 1832, Nr. 64 sub “ Totanus ”), mount, collected by Meyen in “ April ” [= 6 Apr 1831; Meyen 1834b: 475] in “ Peru ”[= Pichupichuni, Peru; 16.59°S, 69.38°W].

Syntype: ZMB 12676, skin, ♂, collected by Ferdinand Deppe (1794–1861) between 1824 and 1829 in “ Mexico ” [= Central Mexico; see Stresemann 1954).

Syntype (lost): ZMB 12677, collected by Bachmann before 1837 in “ Chile ”.

Syntype: ZMB 12678, skin, collected by Friedrich Sellow (1789–1831) between 1821 and 1822 at Montevideo, Uruguay .

Syntype: ZMB 21714, mount (mounted after 1857), collected in Brazil, sent to the ZMB in 1822 by the naturalists C.F.C. Bescke and C.H. Bescke with another (uncatalogued) specimen ( Lichtenstein 1822: 37, no. 91/92 see also Weidner 1967: 111). Exact locality, date and collector are unknown, as it is uncertain whether it was collected by the Besckes themselves.

Syntype: ZMB 2000 /28552, skin, ♂, collected by Friedrich Sellow (1789–1831) between 1821 and 1822 at Montevideo, Uruguay .

Type locality. Pichipuchini, Peru ( Meyen 1834a, b), Chile ( Burmeister 1856), Paraguay ( Azara 1805, 1809, Vieillot 1819), Montevideo, Uruguay ( Burmeister 1856), and southern Brazil ( Burmeister 1856). “Tropical America” ( Lichtenstein 1854) is essentially meaningless (as it encompasses all five specimens, which are or were in the Berlin collection).

Remarks. Tringa dorsalis was originally a label name proposed by Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein (1780– 1857), curator at the ZMB, for an American sandpiper. The name then appeared as a nomen nudum in several papers ( Meyen 1834a: 107, 1834b: 475; Lichtenstein 1835: 29, 1854: 92) and its authorship has been confused. Sclater (1889: 184) and Scott (1910: 324) attributed the name to Burmeister (1861: 503), but Ridgway (1919: 281) traced it back to Burmeister (1856: 374). Richmond (s.d.) attributed the species name to Meyen (1834a) without explanation. Hellmayr & Conover (1948b: 191) argued that Meyen (1834a: 107) based the species on “Chorlito à dos noir” of Azara (1809: 280) and that the name is thus available with Meyen (1834a) as its author. Meyen (1834a: 107) indeed listed “Chorlito à dos noir d’Azara” in the references section on Tringa dorsalis , but he did not discuss it in the main part of the entry and there is no evidence that he equated his Tringa dorsalis with Azara’s “Chorlito à dos noir”. We thus conclude that this reference does not qualify as an indication under Article 12.2 of the International code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999). The name thus should be attributed to Burmeister (1856).

Burmeister (1856: 374) did not specify the type series, because he believed that the species was described by Lichtenstein, but indicated that the species was recorded in “Süd-Brasilien, Montevideo, Chili ” (“southern Brazil, Montevideo, Chile ”), referring to Meyen (1834a), Vieillot (1823: “1089” = 1088 sub “ Tringa melanotos ”) and Azara (1805: 317 sub “Chorlito lomo negro” = Chorlito del lomo negro). These hints as to the type series are analyzed as follows:

Meyen (1834a: 107, 1834b: 475) collected a single specimen on 6 April 1831 at the village of “Piche-Pichun” [= Pichupichuni, Peru]. This syntype was deposited in the ZMB ( Lichtenstein 1832) and is identified as Calidris melanotos . Vieillot (1819: 462, 1823: 1088) based his Tringa melanotos exclusively on Azara’s (1805) “Chorlito [del] lomo negro”, which reduces the number of Burmeister’s sources. Azara (1805: 317, 1809: 280) collected a single specimen that was never in the ZMB and was apparently lost long ago (see Beddall 1975, 1983). Azara’s syntype was indeed Calidris melanotos as currently understood (see Wetmore 1926: 153; Hellmayr 1932: 394; Hellmayr & Conover 1948b: 191).

Burmeister studied ZMB collections during 1852–1856 ( Landsberg 1993), when the ZMB housed four catalogued dorsalis from “Trop. America” according to Lichtenstein (1854: 92). These specimens qualify as syntypes. The inventory catalogue of the ZMB shows that they included the Meyen bird, a Deppe bird from Mexico, a Bachmann bird from Chile, and a Sellow bird from Uruguay (see above for details on these specimens). There are two additional specimens in the ZMB which were stored as skins until 1856. They were probably planned for auction and thus were not inventoried before 1857. One of them was collected by Friedrich Sello in Montevideo and the other one by or for the Besckes (ZMB 21714 and ZMB 2000/28552, respectively). Both were determined as Tringa dorsalis (most probably by Lichtenstein) and belong therefore to the type series. ZMB 2000/ 28552 was probably mentioned as no. 774 in Lichtenstein’s auction catalogue of 1835. The specimens were never exchanged and ZMB 21714 was mounted after 1857. The taxonomic identity of the lost Bachmann specimen is unclear.

Burmeister (1856: 374) reported the species from Brazil. He might have done this in error, or he might have examined one or more specimens from Brazil. If so, this specimen(s) would also belong in the type series. However, we were not able to find any such specimen and if it/they existed, then its/their taxonomic identity is unclear. The IZH, where Burmeister’s South American collections are deposited, possesses two Calidris melanotos . IZH-V 7864 lacks a historical label and any historical information. IZH-V 7863 bears a historical label with old inventory number 210 and an inscription indicating that Burmeister collected the bird at “ Mendoza ”. In the IZH inventory catalogue of 1861, Tringa dorsalis is mentioned with one specimen (no. 211) from Mendoza. Under number 210 two specimens of “ Tringa Bartramia ” (species described by Wilson 1813: 63) collected in Mendoza are listed, of which one was mounted. Burmeister (1861) listed one specimen of Totanus Bartramia and an unspecified number of Tringa dorsalis as having been collected without giving any collector’s or inventory numbers. However, all these specimens were collected at Mendoza, a city in Argentina, not in Brazil, and Burmeister collected the birds there after 1856 ( Burmeister 1861). Thus, the Mendoza specimens do not belong to the type series of Tringa dorsalis .

Considering these data, the type series of Tringa dorsalis Burmeister, 1856 included the syntypes listed above, a specimen from Paraguay described by Azara (1805: 317 sub “Chorlito del lomo negro”, 1809: 280 sub “Le Chorlito a dos noir”), and perhaps specimen(s) collected by Burmeister in Brazil or further specimens at the collection in Halle which were exchanged. This type series thus includes Calidris melanotos (Vieillot, 1819) (Azara specimen and five surviving ZMB specimens) and unidentified Calidris species. Considering that taxonomically unidentified syntypes are not extant, Tringa dorsalis Burmeister, 1856 becomes a junior subjective synonym of Tringa (= Calidris ) melanotos Vieillot, 1819 . This is in agreement with the opinion of most previous authors (see above). No lectotypification is needed here unless one or more lost syntypes are rediscovered and identified as representatives of species other than melanotos .