Zosterops vellalavella Hartert, 1908

Mary, 2011, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (348), pp. 1-193 : 23

Zosterops vellalavella Hartert

Zosterops vellalavella Hartert, 1908: 106 (Vella Lavella I., Central Group of the Solomon Islands).

Now Zosterops vellalavella Hartert, 1906 . See Mees, 1961a: 143–145, Mayr and Diamond, 2001: 396, and van Balen, 2008: 463.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 700719 , adult male, collected on Vella Lavella Island , 07.45S, 156.35E (Times Atlas), Solomon Islands, on 26 February 1908, by Albert S. Meek (no. 3856). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Hartert said that the type in the Rothschild Collection was a male with Meek’s no 3858, collected on 26.ii.08; Meek’s number on the above specimen is 3856. That the number listed in the description was a typographical error is confirmed by Hartert (1920: 436), who cited the number as 3856 without comment. There is no specimen of Z. vellalavella bearing the Meek no. 3858; that number is borne instead by a specimen of Myiagra ferrocyanea feminina (T. Trombone, personal commun.). The holotype bears in addition to Meek’s label and a Rothschild Collection label, a Rothschild type label on which Hartert has written ‘‘no. 3856.’’ It is also cited as the type by Mees (1961a: 144). Hartert (1908: 106) did not say how many specimens he examined, but Rothschild and Hartert (1908: 358) listed four males and two females, with their Meek numbers. The following paratypes, all collected by Meek on Vella Lavella in 1908, came to AMNH: males, AMNH 700718 (Meek no. 3861), 26 February; AMNH 700720 (3848), 25 February; AMNH 700721 (3799), 20 February; female, AMNH 700722 (3857), 26 February. A female specimen bearing Meek’s number 3819 is also a paratype, if found.