Alauda breviunguis Sundevall, 1850: 99

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 : 539

Alauda breviunguis Sundevall, 1850: 99 .

VERBATIM TYPE LOCALITY: “Habitat c. praecedente” = “ Inhabitat regionem fluvii Limpoponis, in Caffraria superiori (Aprevier, Febr.) ”

CURRENT STATUS: Certhilauda chuana (A. Smith, 1836) ; Alaudidae ( Dickinson & Christidis 2014: 435) .

STATUS REFERENCE: Sclater (1930: 321, as Heterocorys breviungus ( Sundevall, 1850)), Peters (1960a: 13) and White (1961: 16, in Mirafra ), Clancey et al. (1980: 147), Keith et al. (1992: 50–51).

TYPE MATERIAL: In his original description, Sundevall gave measurements of a male and a female. According to his acquisition catalogue nine specimens were available for his description. Gyldenstolpe (1926: 22) referred to NRM 569764 [6502] as a “type”, treated here as a lectotype designation of this adult male collected 16 April 1844 at the western side of Varkens River near Rustenburg. The nine paralectotypes include: NRM 569765 [6503] a study skin of a male collected 17 February 1842 at Apies River; NRM 534701 [6496] a mounted male collected 18 April 1844 at the western side of Varkens River near Rustenburg; NRM 534700 [6497], a mounted female collected 6 July 1844 in Leroma (near Pilanesberg); a study skin [6495] of an adult male collected 6 July 1844 at Leroma (but missing from the collection and probably lost); RMNH. AVES.121592 [6498], an adult male collected 5 July 1844 at Leroma , sent on exchange to Leiden in 1850; a male [6499] collected 5 July 1844 at Leroma , sent on exchange to Berlin in 1853 (but not found in the ZMB collection); a male [6500] collected 5 July 1844 in Leroma , sent on exchange to Lund in 1850; a male [6501], sent on exchange to R.B. Sharpe in London in 1871 (but not found in the NHMUK collection).

VERIFIED TYPE LOCALITY: Spitskop (2), adjacent to the Varkens River (= Inkolube River ), near Rustenburg , North West Province .

COMMENTS: Type locality restricted to “Spitzkop (1)”, N. of Witfontein Berge, Western Transvaal (= North West Province) by Gyldenstolpe (1934), but this is misleading. Places where Wahlberg camped and collected in April 1844 are not very clear. On 30 March 1844, he noted that [we] “strike camp and make for Die Spitzkoppe”, later identifying this place as near the Inkolube (or Varkens) River at 24° 56’ south, 27° 05’ east ( Figure 3 ). His journal notes suggest that from 31 March to 14 May he collected in the general area of Varkens (Inkolube) River and Spitskop (2). The oldest label on NRM 569764 (probably written by Sundevall and not by Wahlberg) states “ Alauda sp. ign. C.C. ♂. 16/4 44 Andra sidan Inhalube ”, taken as the western side of Inkolube, although the label locality says only that it is the “other side” of Inkolube. There are four places named Spitskop in the general area where Wahlberg collected. Only two are relevant in the context of Wahlberg’s collections; one west of Saulspoort in the Witfontein Mountains at 24° 52’ south, 26° 40’ east (Spitskop (1), Gyldenstolpe’s correction), and one adjacent to the Varkens River near Rustenburg at 24° 58’ south, 27° 05’ east (Spitskop (2). The type locality in the original type description is correctly named, but needs to be geographically specified. Wahlberg’s collecting locality in this place seems to be a small tributary of the Bierspruit near Spitskop (2) (now called Kwa-Sefikile), see Craig & Hummel (1994: 129, and map B opposite).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Wahlberg’s camps and collecting sites (red dots) in the North West Province 1842–1844.