Zosterops semperi owstoni Hartert, 1900

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 : 9

Zosterops semperi owstoni Hartert

Zosterops semperi owstoni Hartert, 1900a: 2 (Ruk) .

Now Zosterops semperi owstoni Hartert, 1900 . See Mees, 1969: 156–157, Pratt et al., 1987: 284, Slikas et al., 2000: 355–365, and van Balen, 2008: 448.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 700803 , unsexed adult, collected on Chuuk (5 Truk or Ruk ) Island, 07.28N, 151.51E (Times Atlas), Chuuk Islands, Caroline Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, on 7 May 1896, by collectors for Alan Owston. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: No type was designated in the original description, Hartert only saying that the Rothschild Collection had ‘‘received a large series from Ruk.’’ Hartert (1920: 435) listed as the type the only specimen collected on 7 May 1896, thereby designating it the lectotype. The Owston label is marked ‘‘Type’’ in what appears to be Rothschild’s hand, and it also bears a Rothschild type label. Mees (1969: 157) did not appear to accept Hartert’s designation of lectotype, although he usually did so, and only listed part of the type series even though he examined the specimens in AMNH. Hartert’s published designation applies to a unique specimen from the original type series, and this is sufficient for lectotypification. The following are paralectotypes, collected on Chuuk in November 1895, February, March, May, and June 1896: AMNH 700791– 700802, 700804–700811.

Mees (1969: 143–144) included the Caroline Islands white-eyes in the broad species Z. conspicillatus . Pratt et al. (1987: 283–284), based on song, included the subspecies semperi , owstoni, and takatsukasai in the species Z. semperi , and the recent mitochondrial sequence data of Slikas et al. (2000: 355–365) support this arrangement.