Phoebastria albatrus ( Pallas, 1769 )

Yamasaki, Takeshi, Eda, Masaki, Schodde, Richard & Loskot, Vladimir, 2022, Neotype designation of the Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus (Pallas 1769) (Aves: Procellariiformes: Diomedeidae), Zootaxa 5124 (1), pp. 81-87 : 84-86

Phoebastria albatrus ( Pallas, 1769)

Diomedea albatrus Pallas, 1769 , Spicilegia Zoologica quibus novae imprimis et obscurae animalium species iconibus, descriptionibus atque commentariis illustrantur. Fasciculus Quintus, p. 28.

Neotype: Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences ( ZIN) 4388, adult male, collected in the Sea of Okhotsk between Capes Longdar–Negotni and Nurki by Il’ya Gavrilovich Voznesensky on 18 August 1845 (Julian calendar = 30 August Gregorian calendar) ( Figs. 1 and 2 ).

Type locality: Sea of Okhotsk. Due to our neotype designation, the type locality of Phoebastria albatrus is restricted to the sea area between the northern part of Cape Longdar–Negotni (56° 28' N, 138° 15' E) and the southern edge of Cape Nurki (56° 46' N, 138° 33' E) .

Description of the neotype: The neotype is in adult plumage. Head and back are white washed with a golden tinge that is particularly distinct on the occiput and hind-neck. Rectrices are black but have white bases. Ventrally the bird is white. The wings are black with a white patch on the elbow joint narrowing distally along the leading edge of the wing towards the carpal joint.

Measurements of the neotype: NW 534 mm; TAIL 156 mm; TAR 95.6 mm; EC 135.6 mm; NF 100.1 mm; GAPE 166.4 mm; NFW 31.3 mm; BW 39.6 mm; NFH 39.0 mm; BH 47.1 mm. For comparison with the Senkaku and Torishima species see Table 1 .

Taxonomic aspects: Pallas (1769) reported two color morphs (alba and fusca) of this species in the original description. Their characteristics are those of adult and juvenile, respectively. The plumage of ZIN 4388 agrees with the description of alba, and is thus evidently adult and appropriate for designation as a neotype. Size and slender bill, calculated from the quadratic discriminant function of Eda et al. (2020) (F QSM -F QTM = 18.1), identify the neotype with the Senkaku species.

Qualifications for neotypification: The neotype designation here complies with the qualifying conditions for neotypification required by Article 75.3 of the Code, as shown below.

(1) We here designate the neotype to objectively establish the taxonomic application of the species name albatrus Pallas (Article 75.3.1).

(2) The slender bill distinguishes P. albatrus from the Torishima species. For adult males, the quadratic discriminant function of the three bill measurements culmen length (EC), bill height at nares (NFH), and bill height at base (BH) developed by Eda et al. (2020) shows positive values for P. albatrus and negative values for the Torishima species (Article 75.3.2).

(3) The descriptions in the above five subsections and Figs. 1 and 2 are sufficient to ensure the recognition of the designated specimen (Article 75.3.3).

(4) For reasons given in the introduction, we judge that the original name-bearing types have been discarded (Article 75.3.4).

(5) As mentioned in the above subsection “Taxonomic aspects”, the plumage of the neotype matches that of one of the original name-bearing types. The genders of the original name-bearing types are unknown (Article 75.3.4).

(6) As mentioned in the Introduction, the original name-bearing types were collected from the Sea of Okhotsk. As mentioned in the “Type locality” subsection, labels on the neotype ( Fig. 2 ) indicate that it was collected from the Sea of Okhotsk (Article 75.3.6).

(7) As mentioned in the “ Neotype ” subsection, the neotype is deposited at the Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences (Article 75.3.7).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Neotype of Phoebastria albatrus (Pallas, 1769); ZIN 4388. (A) dorsal and (B) ventral views.

FIGURE 2. (A) old and (B) modern museum labels attached to the neotype specimen. The text on the label (A) is translated as “No. 689. museum skin. Phoebastria albatrus (Pall.) male adult. 18.VIII.1845. Okhotsk Sea, between Cape Longdar-Negotni (near port Ayan) and peninsula Nurki at the north turn. Woznesensky”. The text on the label (B) is translated as “No. 4388. coll. Woznesensky. 18 August 1845. Okhotsk Sea between Capes Londar-Negotni and Nurki”.