Neositta leucoptera lumholtzi Mathews

Pachycephalidae, Aegithalidae, Remizidae, Paridae, Sittidae, Neosittidae, Certhiidae, Rhabdornithidae, Climacteridae, Dicaeidae, Pardalotidae, Nectariniidae, And & Lecroy, Mary, 2010, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 8. Passeriformes:, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2010 (333), pp. 1-178 : 87

Neositta leucoptera lumholtzi Mathews

Neositta leucoptera lumholtzi Mathews, 1916a: 61 (Queensland (North?)).

Now? Daphoenositta c. chrysoptera X D. c. leucocephala . See Mayr, 1950, Ford, 1980, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 428–430, and Noske, 2007a: 640–641.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 684222 , unsexed, collected in Queensland, Australia, undated, by Carl Lumholtz. From the Mathews Collection (no. 11036) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the meager original description, Mathews merely said that the type was from ‘‘ Queensland (North?)’’; his use of the specific name ‘‘ leucoptera ’’ was apparently a slip of the pen for leucocephala ( Mathews, 1923b: 61) . The lectotype has five labels. There is a Mathews Collection label bearing the name ‘‘ Neositta leucocephala lumholtzi ,’’ marked ‘‘Type’’ in Mathews’ hand and with his catalog number ‘‘11036.’’ The number ‘‘695’’ on this label refers to the number of this species in Mathews (1908). The second label is a Mathews ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that the specimen was illustrated in Mathews (1923b: pl. 496, top left, opp. p. 55, text p. 60), where it is said to be the type of lumholtzi, thereby designating it the lectotype. A third label is a Lumholtz printed label with ‘‘Queensland’’ printed as the locality. The fourth label is a Rothschild label printed ‘‘Ex. coll. G.M. Mathews,’’ on which someone has written ‘‘Gracemere,’’ annotated by J.C. Greenway, Jr. as: ‘‘Restriction by Mayr, 1950.’’ The fifth label is a Rothschild type label with the name lumholtzi and its reference filled in by hand unknown.

Mathews (1942: 53) acquired from Professor Collett in Oslo specimens that he cataloged as having been collected by Knut Dahl, but the collection also contained specimens collected by Lumholtz in Queensland in 1880–1883; this type is one of the latter. Mayr (1950: 285) restricted the type locality of lumholtzi to Gracemere, because that was Lumholtz’s base during his stay in Australia, but he also traveled into western Queensland, and collected at Mackay and in the Herbert River valley ( Whittell, 1954: 457). Someone in hand unknown has written ‘‘Fitzroy R.?’’ on Lumholz’s label of this lectotype, which is consistent with the locality ‘‘Gracemere’’ on the other label; the ‘‘Fitzroy River’’ referred to here is the river that flows through the city of Rockhampton in central coastal east Queensland (R. Schodde, personal commun.).

Mayr (1950: 285) applied Mathews’ name to central Queensland birds, giving Gracemere as the southern boundary and the Suttor River as the northern boundary. Mayr had four specimens that he assigned to this form, none of which had accurate locality data. Ford (1980: 2) implied that lumholtzi might be considered an introgressed population between leucocephala and chrysoptera , and this is supported by streaking on the grayish head of the type of lumholtzi and is consistent with the locality annotations on the labels. Mathews’ vagueness makes it impossible to determine which specimens he included in the form.