Lamprotornis mevesii mevesii ( Wahlberg, 1856 )

Dean, W. Richard J., Åhlander, Erik & Johansson, Ulf S., 2022, Avian type localities and the type specimens collected by Johan August Wahlberg in southern Africa, Zootaxa 5134 (4), pp. 521-560 : 551

Juida Mevesii Wahlberg, 1856: 174 .

VERBATIM TYPE LOCALITY: “ Ad flumen Doughe ”

CURRENT STATUS: Lamprotornis mevesii mevesii ( Wahlberg, 1856) ; Sturnidae ( Dickinson & Christidis 2014: 578) .

TYPE MATERIAL: Wahlberg, in his original description (1856: 174) mentioned both males and females. According to Sundevall’s acquisition catalogue three specimens were received in Stockholm after Wahlberg’s death. Gyldenstolpe (1926: 7) referred to NRM 568735 [11682] as a “type”; we treat this as a lectotype designation of this adult male collected 3 April 1855 near the Doughe (Thaoge) River. The two paralectotypes are: NRM 553759 [11683], an adult female collected in August 1855 at the same place as the lectotype; and an additional specimen [11684] (no data clearly given but likely from the Okavango delta-Lake Ngami area in April–September 1855), which was sent on exchange to Bremen in 1858 .

VERIFIED TYPE LOCALITY: Toteng , Botswana .

COMMENTS: There are no notes or mentions in correspondence about where Wahlberg was in April 1855, but his journal, beginning 30 May 1855, noted that he was at Lake Ngami, Botswana, until at least 29 July. Wahlberg made a hunting trip from July to October 1855 up the Thaoge River, but there is no direct mention of his whereabouts before leaving for the trip. He left his ivory and collections with Letsholathebe (King of the Batoana) at Letsholathebe’s Town (letter to Retzius in Craig & Hummel 1994), a place now known as Toteng. Based on specimen labels, Wahlberg travelled east from northern Namibia, and collected a Red-headed Finch Amadina erythrocephala at the upper reaches of the Nossob River (probably the eastern Black Nossob) on 6 March 1855, and then an African Green Pigeon Treron calva at Lake Ngami on 11 March, and an African Skimmer Rynchops flavirostris at the same locality on 26 March. No further specimens are labelled Lake Ngami, but the next specimen in date order is Lamprotornis mevesii , collected on 3 April. The skin is labelled “ Okavango River” (= Thaoge River), almost certainly in error since Wahlberg had not departed for the Thaoge River until almost three months later, and according to Rookmaaker (2007) he was still at Lake Ngami on 24 June. Circumstantial evidence, and notes in his journal, suggest that he was at Toteng, on the edge of Lake Ngami before departing on the hunting trip, and would have been at this locality during April 1855. The species was named after the entomologist and ornithologist Friederich Wilhelm Meves (1814–1891), taxidermist at the NRM, Stockholm.