Cryptolopha alpina Ogilvie-Grant

LeCroy, M., 2008, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 7. Passeriformes: Sylviidae, Muscicapidae, Platysteiridae, Maluridae, Acanthizidae, Monarchidae, Rhipiduridae, And Petroicidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 313 (1), pp. 1-287 : 58

Cryptolopha alpina Ogilvie-Grant

Cryptolopha alpina Ogilvie-Grant, 1906: 117 (Eastern Ruwenzori).

Now Phylloscopus umbovirens alpinus ( Ogilvie-Grant, 1906) . See Watson et al., 1986a: 227, and Urban et al., 1997: 363.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 450687 , adult male, collected in Ruwenzori East, 10,000 ft, on 1 February 1906, by D. Carruthers (no. 1207) ; and AMNH 450688 , adult female, collected in Ruwenzori East, 12,500 ft, on 18 February 1906, by R.E. Dent (no. 160). From the Rothschild Collection .

COMMENTS: In the original description, male and female were described, but no type was designated. In the expanded account of the birds collected on the Ruwenzori Expedition, Ogilvie-Grant (1909a: 407–408) gave the field numbers of the specimens collected and indicated that numbers 1187 and 3131 were the ‘‘types of the species’’. However, this does not constitute a valid designation of a lectotype, and all of the specimens collected remain syntypes. Warren and Harrison (1971: 18) listed a male syntype and mentioned that there were several other syntypes in BMNH. Louette et al. (2002: 50) listed one syntype in RMCA, bearing Carruthers field number 1202. That number and the field numbers on the two specimens listed above are among those in Ogilvie-Grant (1909a: 407–408), and in each case they had a small ‘‘d’’ above them, indicating that they were duplicates. These duplicates were apparently then sold, as Louette et al. (2002: 50) noted that RMCA acquired their specimen from the dealer Rosenberg. Rothschild probably acquired his the same way, and this may be the source of the number ‘‘875’’ stamped on the reverse of the original label of the two AMNH specimens.

Although both of the AMNH specimens were collected in February 1906 and Ogilvie-Grant (1909a: 407–408) gave the February collecting locality as Mubuku Valley, both of the original labels are marked ‘‘Ruwenzori East’’. Cryptolopha alpina is illustrated in Ogilvie-Grant (1909a: pl. 12).

Louette et al. (2002: 50) noted that I had sent information that AMNH had one syntype of C. alpina , but since then I have found the second syntype listed above.