Pytelia melba mosambica van Someren

LeCroy, Mary, 2013, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 11. Passeriformes: Parulidae, Drepanididae, Vireonidae, Icteridae, Fringillinae, Carduelinae, Estrildidae, And Viduinae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2013 (381), pp. 1-155 : 86

Pytelia melba mosambica van Someren

Pytelia melba mosambica van Someren, 1919: 55 (Lumbo) .

Now Pytilia melba grotei Reichenow, 1919 . See Hartert, 1928: 196, Mayr et al., 1968: 314–315; Dickinson, 2003: 727; Fry and Keith, 2004: 354– 358; and Payne, 2010: 331.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 728698 , adult male, collected at Lumbo , 15.00S, 40.40E (Times atlas), Mozambique, on 6 August 1918. From the V.G.L. van Someren Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, van Someren said that the type, in the Rothschild Collection, was a male collected at Lumbo on 6 August 1918 but did not enumerate the specimens he examined. Only two specimens came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection, both males and both collected on the same date. Hartert (1928: 196) does not further distinguish between the two specimens. AMNH 728698 bears the Rothschild type label filled in perhaps by van Someren, and his original label is marked ‘‘Type’’ on the reverse. Because this is the intended type, I hereby designate AMNH 728698 the lectotype of mosambica in order to remove the ambiguity associated with the presence of identical data on the two specimens. There is one paralectotype in AMNH: AMNH 728699, adult male, Lumbo, 6 August 1918, from V.G.L. van Someren and marked ‘‘sp. nov.,’’ but no type status indicated.