Ardea longicollis Meyen, 1834a : 104

Mlíkovský, Jiří & Frahnert, Sylke, 2017, Type specimens and type localities of birds (Aves) collected during F. J. F. Meyen’s circumnavigation in 1830 – 1832, Zootaxa 4250 (1), pp. 1-22 : 4

Ardea longicollis Meyen, 1834a: 104 .

Now: Egretta eulophotes (Swinhoe, 1860) . See Sharpe (1898: 98), Hartert (1920: 1238).

Holotype (lost): ZMB not catalogued ( Lichtenstein 1832, Nr. 69 sub “ Ardea leuce ?”), collected by Meyen in “ October ” [= 1 October 1831; see Meyen 1835: 258] in “ Manila ” [= Talim Island, Luzon; see below]. The type was already noted as missing by von Martens (1866: 27).

Type locality. “ Manila ” ( Meyen 1834a: 104–105). In his travel report, Meyen (1835: 258) specified that he collected this heron on 1 October on Talim Island . We thus ascertain the type locality as Talim Island, Luzon , Philippines.

Remarks. The taxonomic identity of Ardea longicollis Meyen has long been uncertain, despite a detailed description of the holotype provided by Meyen (1834a). Wiegmann (1835: 315) found the holotype (which he seems to have examined personally) not separable from Ardea flavirostris Wagler (1827: Ardea sp. 9), which is a synonym of Ardea alba Linnaeus, 1758 (cf. Sharpe 1898: 270). Reichenow (1877: 271) synonymized the species with Ardea nivea S.G. Gmelin, 1770 , which in turn is a synonym of Ardea (= Egretta ) garzetta Linnaeus, 1766 ( Hartert 1920: 1239; Mlíkovský 2011a: 92). Sharpe (1898: 98) synonymized it with Ardea (his Herodias ) timoriensis Lesson (1831: 575), which in turn is a synonym of Ardea alba Linnaeus, 1758 (cf. Sharpe 1898: 270, Oberholser 1919: 558, Peters 1931: 110). Meyen (1834a: 104–105) described his longicollis as a large, whiteplumaged heron with yellow bill, black legs and yellow feet. The latter combination of characters is unique for the Chinese Egret Egretta eulophotes (Swinhoe, 1860) , among herons and egrets of the Philippines ( Kennedy et al. 2000).

Ardea longicollis Meyen, 1834a , antedates Herodias (= Egretta ) eulophotes Swinhoe, 1860 . Despite this, prevailing usage of the latter name must be maintained (ICZN 1999, Art. 23.9), because Ardea longicollis Meyen, 1834 , has not been used as a valid name after 1899 (ICZN 1999, Art. 23.9.1), and Egretta eulophotes (Swinhoe) has been used as a valid name for the Chinese Egret with sufficient frequency, during a sufficiently long period and by a sufficient number of authors to fulfill the conditions of ICZN (1999, Art. 23.9.1.2). The required references (ICZN 1999, Art. 23.9.2) include Payne (1979: 214), Hancock & Kushlan (1984: 134), Humphrey & Bain (1990: 130), Brazil (1991: 62), Dickinson et al. (1991: 104), Martínez-Vilalta & Motiz (1992), Mackinnon & Phillips (1993: 63, 2000: 231), Inskipp et al. (1996: 102), Coates & Bishop (1997: 237), Tomek (1999), Litvinenko & Šibaev (1999, 2000), Kennedy et al. (2000: 29), Collar (2001: 111), Dickinson (2003: 88), Stepanân (2003: 43), Kushlan & Hancock (2004: 200), Weerd & Ploeg (2004), Robson (2005: 146), Wei et al. (2005), Zheng (2005: 11), Koblik et al. (2006: 88), Liang et al. (2007), Zhou et al. (2008), Arlott (2009: 32), Dickinson & Remsen (2013: 191), Kang et al. (2013: 618) and Wand et al. (2013). Herewith, Herodias eulophotes Swinhoe, 1860 , becomes a nomen protectum, and Ardea longicollis Meyen, 1834 , becomes a nomen oblitum in the sense of ICZN (1999). Also, this heron species was earlier known under the specific name eulophotes in major works ( Hartert 1920: 1241, Peters 1931: 111, La Touche 1934: 450, Vaurie 1965: 70).