Curruca galactodes

Mlíkovský, Jiří & Frahnert, Sylke, 2011, Type specimens and type localities of birds collected during the Hemprich and Ehrenberg expedition to Lebanon in 1824, Zootaxa 2990, pp. 1-29 : 7

Curruca galactodes var. syriaca Hemprich & Ehrenberg

Sylvia galactodes Var. Lichtenstein, 1825 [Unpublished manuscript name.] Curruca galactodes [sic] var. syriaca Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833: 54 .

Now. Cercotrichas galactotes syriaca ( Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) . See Hartert (1909: 605)

Type series. Hemprich and Ehrenberg (1833: 54) did not specify on how many specimens they based this form. Lichtenstein (1825, Nr. 120–121) listed two such specimens, both of which qualify as syntypes of C. galactodes syriaca . Entries in the Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB are confused as regards the geographic origin of listed specimens, mainly because specimens ZMB 3936 and 3939 were interchanged. Only two Hemprich and Ehrenberg specimens ( ZMB 3936 and ZMB 3940) belong to the syriacus form, which agrees with Lichtenstein's (1825) list, and we thus consider these two specimens to be the syntypes of Curruca galactodes syriaca . Specimens ZMB 3939 (nominotypical galactotes ) and ZMB 3941 (lost) thus do not belong to the type series and "Bairut" and “ Syrien ” as their place of origin originally given in the Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB is wrong. As specimen ZMB 3941 is lost, no morphological information about its origin is available and we inferred that the data on its origin are wrong in the Inventory Catalogue from the number of specimens that, on the basis of morphology, belong to the subspecies from Syria.

Syntype. ZMB 3936, mount, unsexed, collected on an unknown date [= 18 June–9 July or 3–6 August 1824] in "Abyssinien", which a former curator crossed out and replaced with "Bairut" (label) [= Beirut, Lebanon]. Morphologically the bird is syriacus , but this subspecies breeds in Lebanon and migrates across Egypt ( Goodman & Meininger 1989: 382) to the Horn of Africa ( Redman et al. 2009: 308). Theoretically, Hemprich and Ehrenberg thus could have encountered it both at Beirut and in “ Abyssinia ”. However, we think that the locality was confused in the Catalogue due to interchange with specimen ZMB 3939 and that this individual is the second one collected at Beirut ( Lichtenstein 1825).

Syntype. ZMB 3940 (erroneously registered again as ZMB 49.140), skin, unsexed, collected on an unknown date [= 18 June–9 July or 3–6 August 1824] at “Bairut” (label) [= Beirut, Lebanon]. The same locality was crossed out and replaced with “ Syrien ” in the Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB. Morphologically the bird fits with race syriacus .

Type locality. Hemprich and Ehrenberg (1833: 54) did not specify the geographic origin of this form, but listed it only among the birds from “ Syria ”. Lichtenstein (1825) gave “Bairut” as the collection locality for both specimens he listed (see also Stresemann 1962: 387), and Hartert (1909: 605) accordingly noted that the type locality of this species is “Beirut”. Vaurie (1959b: 355), however, listed the type locality as “ Syria ” without explanation. Considering the data in Lichtenstein (1825), we correct here the type locality to Beirut, Lebanon. The type specimens were collected there during 18 May–9 June 1824 and/or during 2–6 August 1824.