Polioptila melanura Lawrence, 1857

Mary, Croy, History, Bulletin Of The American Museum Of Natural, At, Central Park West, Street, Th, York, New & Ny, 2005, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 6. Passeriformes: Prunellidae, Turdidae, Orthonychidae, Timaliidae, Paradoxornithidae, Picathartidae, And Polioptilidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2005 (292), pp. 1-132 : 107-108

Polioptila melanura Lawrence

Polioptila melanura Lawrence, 1857: 168 (Texas, California).

Now Polioptila melanura melanura Lawrence, 1857 . See Atwood, 1988: 1–4, and Farquhar and Ritchie, 2002.

SYNTYPE: AMNH 39348, adult female, collected at Brownsville, 258549N, 978309W (Times Atlas), Texas, by Capt. John Porter McCown. From the George N. Lawrence Collection.

COMMENTS: Lawrence (1851: 124) at first identified at least a male and a female as Culicivora atricapilla and noted that they were collected in Texas by McCown. Later, Lawrence (1857: 168) described them as a new species, again referring to both male and female, and added California as part of the range. Only the above female was cataloged at AMNH with the Lawrence Collection. The Lawrence label is noted in Lawrence’s hand: ‘‘Type, Brownsville, Presented by Capt. McCown’’. McCown was stationed at Fort Brown (5 Brownsville) in 1850 ( Mearns and Mearns, 1992: 301). The number ‘‘b.284’’ appears on the Lawrence label of this syntype, but I was unable to trace it.

Because California was included in the range in the original description, I carefully checked a specimen cataloged as from California. It is a male, but was collected by James G. Cooper in 1874, long after this description was published. Lawrence (1857: 168) stated that the illustration of the male and female referred to as Culicivora mexicana by Cassin (1856: pl. 27) was of this species. In his text, Cassin (1856: 163) mentioned specimens from Ringgold Barracks (5 Brownsville), Texas, collected by McCown, and specimens from California collected by Heermann. Therefore, Lawrence may not have had a specimen from California or a second one from Texas, referring instead to Cassin’s plate. The AMNH type had not previously been recognized as such and includ­ ed in the AMNH type collection.

See Zink and Blackwell (1998) for a recent study of mitochondrial DNA in this and related species of Polioptila .

Culicivora lembeyei Gundlach

Culicivora lembeyei Gundlach, 1858: 273 (eastern Cuba).

Now Polioptila lembeyei ( Gundlach, 1858) . See Garrido and Kirkconnell, 2000: 174.

PROBABLE SYNTYPE: AMNH 39357, male adult, collected in eastern Cuba by John Gundlach. From the George N. Lawrence Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Gundlach did not designate a type or state how many specimens he had, but only described the male. In Lawrence’s (1858: 277) comments on Gundlach’s new taxa, he said that Gundlach sent him specimens of all the birds described and that he only received the male of lembeyei . While this specimen bears no date, it is very probably the one that Lawrence received. AMNH has a syntype of Teretistris fornsi (see Garrido, 2000: 89, and Aguilera Roman and Garrido, 2000: 2) and two probable syntypes of Colaptes chrysocaulosus (one of which was named as a neotype, see Greenway, 1978: 231) described by Gundlach in the same paper. Lester Short has called attention to the probable syntype status of this specimen on the reverse of the Lawrence label. Aguilera Roman and Garrido (2000: 2) referred to the specimen of this taxon in the Gundlach collection as the holotype. This does not now qualify as lectotypification, as it would have prior to 1999 (ICZN, 1999: 83, Art. 74.6.1). According to the revised Code (ICZN, 1999: 83, Art. 74.7.1), valid lectotypification must ‘‘employ the term ‘lectotype’ or an exact translation... ’’.

Polioptila albiventris Lawrence

Polioptila albiventris Lawrence, 1885: 273 (Temax, Yucatan). Now Polioptila albiloris albiventris Lawrence,

1885. See Phillips, 1991: 34, and Dickinson, 2003: 644.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 38890 , adult male, collected at Temax, 218109N, 888539W (Times Atlas), Yucatán, Mexico, by Dr. George F. Gaumer. From the George N. Lawrence Collection.

COMMENTS: Lawrence described the male only, noting that Gaumer sent a single specimen, and stated that the type was in his collection. The Lawrence label is marked ‘‘Type’’ in his hand. The original Gaumer label remains on this specimen and bears no date. The Lawrence label bears the date September 1885, but this may be the date he received the specimen rather than the date of collection. The description was read before the New York Academy of Sciences on 23 November 1885.

See Zimmer (1942: 2) for a discussion of this form and Zink and Blackwell (1998) for recent DNA studies of this species.

Polioptila superciliaris Lawrence

Polioptila superciliaris Lawrence, 1861b: 304 (New Grenada, Isthmus of Panama).

Now Polioptila plumbea superciliaris Lawrence, 1861 . See Wetmore et al., 1984: 180, and Dickinson, 2003: 644.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 38894, adult male, and AMNH 38899, adult female, collected along the old Panama railroad, on the Atlantic Slope of the Isthmus of Panama, during the winter of 1860–1861, by James McLeannan and John R. Galbraith. From the George N. Lawrence Collection.

COMMENTS: Lawrence did not designate a type or say how many specimens he had, but he described male and female. The description, read in April 1861 and published in June 1861, was based on specimens collected the previous winter by both McLeannan and Galbraith ( Lawrence, 1861c: 315). Almost all of the specimens, including these syntypes, were collected on the Atlantic slope of the Isthmus ( Lawrence, 1861c: 316). I was not able to trace the number ‘‘51’’ that appears on the Lawrence label of each of the syntypes.

There are three additional specimens of superciliaris that came to AMNH with the Lawrence Collection. Two of these are ju­ veniles: AMNH 38896, male, and AMNH 38899bis, female, date and collector not indicated. These juveniles were not mentioned in the original description. The third specimen, an adult male, AMNH 38897, is undated but was collected by McLeannan alone. McLeannan sent Lawrence specimens both before and after the time he collected with Galbraith ( Lawrence, 1862: 461). Because no Polioptila was listed in part 1 of Lawrence’s (1861a) Catalogue, these three specimens must have been collected later, and I do not consider them part of Lawrence’s type series.

Zimmer (1942: 1–2) discussed the validity of this subspecies.

Polioptila plumbiceps Lawrence Polioptila plumbiceps Lawrence, 1865: 37 (Ve­

nezuela).

Now Polioptila plumbea plumbiceps Lawrence,

1865. See Hilty, 2003: 704.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 39354 , adult male, collected in Venezuela, by S.C. Nash. From the George N. Lawrence Collection.

COMMENTS: Lawrence described only the male but did not say how many specimens he had. Only one Venezuelan specimen of plumbiceps came to AMNH with the Lawrence Collection, and it is labeled ‘‘Type’’ in Lawrence’s hand. I consider it the holotype.

Zimmer (1942: 5) selected Tucacas, 108509N, 688229W (Times Atlas), Falcón, Venezuela, as the type locality of this form and discussed relationships within the species Polioptila plumbea .

Polioptila livida daguae Chapman Polioptila livida daguae Chapman, 1915: 648

(Los Cisneros, Dagua River, west Colombia).

Now Polioptila plumbea daguae Chapman, 1915 .

See Hilty and Brown, 1986: 552, and Dickin­

son, 2003: 644.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 108286 , adult male, collected at Cisneros (5 Los Cisneros), 600 ft, 038479N, 768469W ( Paynter, 1997: 97), Río Dagua, Cauca, Colombia, on 20 March 1911, by William B. Richardson.

COMMENTS: Chapman gave the AMNH number of the holotype in the original description and noted that he had a single specimen.