Zosterops chlorocephalus A.J. Campbell and, 1910

Mary, 2011, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (348), pp. 1-193 : 31

Zosterops chlorocephalus A.J. Campbell and S.A. White

Zosterops chlorocephalus A.J. Campbell and S.A. White, 1910: 196 (North-West and Tryon Islands, Capricorn Group).

Now Zosterops lateralis chlorocephalus A.J. Campbell and S.A. White, 1910 . See Mees, 1969: 86– 88, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 687–691, and van Balen, 2008: 467–468.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 700957, adult male, collected on North-West Island, 10.40S, 142.07E ( USBGN, 1957), Capricorn Group, Queensland, Australia, on 9 October 1910, by S.A. White. From the Mathews Collection (10378) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, no type was designated but white-eyes were said to be in great numbers on North-West and Tryon Islands. ‘‘Several skins were procured– the first by Mr. J.W. Mellor.’’ Mathews had three North-West Island specimens that were syntypes of chlorocephalus .

AMNH 700957, adult male, collected on 9 October 1910, bears four labels. The first is White’s field label, with the original data on the front of the label; on the reverse is ‘‘to be returned’’ in White’s hand and ‘‘afterwards given me by S.A. White’’ in Mathews’ hand, Mathews annotations ‘‘wing 69’’ and ‘‘middle Fig.’’ The second label is a Rothschild type label bearing Mathews’ catalog number and a citation to the original description. The third label is Mathews’ type label, with his catalog number ‘‘10378,’’ which was not elsewhere cited, and a reference to the Campbell and White description; opposite Mathews’ catalog entry the specimen is credited to White and was cataloged between 20 and 24 February 1912. The fourth label is Mathews’ ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1923a: pl. 505, middle figure, opp. p. 136, text p. 139), where the illustrated male with the correct data and a wing of 69 [mm] is said to be the type of chlorocephalus . That is an unequivocal designation of a lectotype. Mees (1969: 86–87) was thus in error when he reported that the Mellor specimen, AMNH 700956, was the lectotype designated by Mathews, perhaps as a result of looking only at specimens in the general collection. AMNH 700957 was marked as the type when the Rothschild Collection was cataloged at AMNH and has always been separated in the type collection.

With Mathews’ designation of a lectotype, the two additional AMNH specimens become paralectotypes: AMNH 700956, adult male, collected in October 1910 by J.W. Mellor, whose name appears on the original label. This specimen was cataloged by Mathews as his no. 10379, attributed to Mellor. There is no indication on any of the labels that this was the first specimen collected. AMNH 700958, adult female, collected on 11 October 1910, apparently by White, as the handwriting on the field label matches that on the lectotype and the reverse is annotated ‘‘to be returned.’’ There is no additional note here that the specimen was given to Mathews by White, only ‘‘wing 63[mm]’’ appears. I did not find it in Mathews’ catalog. An additional paralectotype is in SAMA, collected in October 1910 by S.A. White, and labeled ‘‘Co-type’’ by him (B. Blaylock, personal commun.). As the exact number of specimens was not given, other paralectotypes of chlorocephalus from North-West and Tryon islands may be held in other institutions.