Muscicapa fuscula Sundevall, 1850: 105

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 : 552-553

Muscicapa fuscula Sundevall, 1850: 105 .

VERBATIM TYPE LOCALITY: “ in Caffraria ”

CURRENT STATUS: Muscicapa adusta fuscula Sundevall 1850 ; Muscicapidae ( Dickinson & Christidis 2014: 588) .

TYPE MATERIAL: Sundevall (1850: 105) did not indicate how many specimens he had available, but it appears that apart from material collected by Wahlberg, the two specimens (male and female) illustrated by Levaillant under the name “ Le Gobe Mouches Ondulé ” (1805, vol. 4: plate 156) are part of the type series. According to Sundevall’s acquisition catalogue two specimens were at hand in 1850 (marked “ Musc. fuscula n sp. ” but also “ l’Ondulé 156 ” + illegible). Gyldenstolpe (1926: 60) referred to NRM 568764 [6799] as a “type”; we treat this as a lectotype designation of this adult male collected 12 May 1840 in Durban. The paralectotype is NRM 568765 [6798], an adult male collected 29 April 1840 in Durban. However, the illustrations in Levaillant (1805, vol. 4: plate 156) are the type specimens for Butalis adusta Boie, 1828 ( Muscicapa adusta ). The specimens illustrated by Levaillant have no explicit origin, but he stated that he had seen this species in “le pays d’Auteniquoi” where it is very common as well as along the coast of Natal. The specimens on Levaillant’s plate are paralectotypes of Muscicapa fuscula , but they are no longer primary types, and they are name-bearing for Butalis adusta only. No lectotype or neotype for Butalis adusta seems to have been designated. Traylor (1986a: 329) referred to the TL as “Auteniquoi ex Levaillant = Knysna district, Cape Province ”, which does not agree with Levaillant. The locality “Knysna” was corrected by Rookmaaker (1986); the “Pays d’Auteniquois” sensu Levaillant is in the immediate vicinity of George.According to Levaillant’s map of his travels, however, he clearly never visited the coastal area near Durban, and so the type localities of Butalis adusta Boie, 1828 and Muscicapa fuscula Sundevall, 1850 do not overlap.

VERIFIED TYPE LOCALITY: Durban , KwaZulu-Natal .

COMMENTS: There are no journal entries for this date. Wahlberg was in Durban from March to early October 1840.