Megascops choliba cruciger ( von Spix, 1824 )

Cibois, Alice, Vallotton, Laurent, Othman, Nagwa, Weber, Claude & Ruedi, Manuel, 2016, Type specimens of birds in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Geneva, Revue suisse de Zoologie 123 (2), pp. 269-282 : 278

Otus choliba caucae Hekstra, 1982

1982b (December) Bulletin Zoölogisch museum Universiteit van Amsterdam: 60. See also 1982a (May), Ph.D. thesis Vrije Univ. Amsterdam: 99.

Now Megascops choliba cruciger ( von Spix, 1824) .

See Holt et al., 1999: 175.

MHNG 1125.004 , adult male, collected in Colombia [Chaguayaco (incorrectly labeled Charguayaco), El Tambo, Cauca] in August 1957 by K. von Sneidern, whose collection was bought by the MHNG during the 1960s. This specimen is much more rufous than others collected by von Sneidern in the same locality (four specimens in the MHNG, collected in September and November 1956, and in May 1957). But Holt et al. (1999) considered the taxon caucae as an individual variation (i.e. a morph) and placed it in synonymy with cruciger.

In his thesis dissertation (defended in May 1982), Hekstra (1982a) designated a holotype from a specimen held in the Rijksmuseum voor Natuurlijke Historic, Leiden (RMNHL 8091) and mentioned that paratypes exist in other museums, including the MHNG. However, the back of the cover of this publication includes a statement that it is not a valid publication for the purposes of nomenclature. In his publication of December 1982 where Hekstra (1982b) described formally the new taxon, these specimens are treated as “additional specimens examined”, suggesting that he had changed his mind considering the paratypes.