Myzantha flavigula wilsoni Mathews

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 : 162

Myzantha flavigula wilsoni Mathews

Myzantha flavigula wilsoni Mathews, 1912b: 51 (Turner’s Well, South Australia).

Now Manorina flavigula melanotis ( Wilson, 1911) . See Salomonsen, 1967: 443, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 269–273, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 617.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 694533 , adult male, collected at Turner’s Well , 20 miles northeast of Bow Hill, 34.54S, 139.37E ( USBGN, 1957), South Australia, Australia, on 10 November 1911, by S.A. White (no. 249). From the Mathews Collection (no. 10142) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews cited his catalog number of the holotype in the original description and gave the range of wilsoni as ‘‘ South Australia.’’ The holotype bears White’s original label and Mathews and Rothschild type labels. A second specimen of this form, collected at Turner’s Well on the same day (see White, 1913a: 180) is a paratype: AMNH 694534, male; it has a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was the model for Mathews (1925a: pl. 547, upper fig., opp. p. 47, text p. 48), with no type status attributed to it. Higgins et al. (2008: 617) treated melanotis as a monotypic species, citing mitochondrial DNA studies. Schodde and Mason (1999: 269–273) discussed the complex interactions of the populations of Manorina flavigula and suggested retaining melanotis as a subspecies of that species. Futher studies seem indicated.