Xanthotis chrysotis kumusii Mayr

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 : 105-106

Xanthotis chrysotis kumusii Mayr

Xanthotis chrysotis kumusii Mayr, 1931c: 663 (Kumusiriver[sic]).

Now Xanthotis flaviventer kumusii Mayr, 1931 . See Coates, 1990: 275–277, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 227–228, and Higgins et al., 2008: 689– 690.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 696142 , adult male, collected on the Kumusi River , 08.30S, 148.10E (PNG, 1984), Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, on 19 May 1907, by Albert S. Meek (no. 2973). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mayr cited Meek’s unique field number of the holotype in the original description and gave the range as the Aicora River , the Kumusi River , the Hydrographer Range , and specimens from Collingwood Bay. The following paratypes are in AMNH: Aicora River, AMNH 696137–696140 , three males, one female, September–October 1905 ; Kumusi River , AMNH 696141 , 696143 , 696144 , one male, two females, May 1907 ; Hydrographer Range , AMNH 696145– 696152 , six males, two females, January– April 1918 ; Haidana Island , Collingwood Bay, AMNH 696153 , 696154 , male and female, April 1907. Mayr described this form while working in the Rothschild Collection, prior to its coming to AMNH in 1932 .

Salomonsen (1967: 387) and Coates (1990: 277) recognized kumusii, Schodde and Mason (1999: 228) suggested that it represents intergradation between visi and madaraszi, and it was included in visi by Higgins et al. (2008: 689). X. f. kumusii, as originally described, is a circumscribed population known from between Dyke Acland Bay and Mambare Bay (Aicora 5 Gira River). It is usually cited as occurring in Collingwood Bay, but it seems that this is based on Meek’s specimens from ‘‘Haidana Island.’’ Despite intensive searching, I ( LeCroy, 2008: 216) have been unable to find this locality and consider it dubious. The specimens from the Hydrographer Mountains are said on the Rothschild labels to come from west of Dyke Acland Bay. I think that more study is needed.