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Turdus libonyanus costae (1 Viewer)

Taphrospilus

Taphrospilus

Well-known member
On HBW Alive is written:

* Eponym; dedication unseen (Rensch 1923, Journ. für Ornith., 71, 99) (syn. Turdus libonyanus tropicalis).

On page 99 is written Verbreitung: Küstengebiete Deutschostafrikas von Tanga bis Lindi means Distribution: Coastal area of German East Africa from Tanga to Lindi.

So I think the dedication is not for a person but from spanish costa = coast (as in Costa Rica).

Or from Latin From Medieval Latin costa (“edge, coast”), from Latin costa (“side, rib”).
 
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If so (!?) it might be worth considering the early Common English name "Coastal Kurrichane Thrush".

Based on what ... I do not know.

That´s all I got in my "notes" ...
 
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Interesting proposition, but I remain to be convinced, as I cannot quite envisage a German ornithologist describing in the German journal a bird from German East Africa (later Tanganyika, now Tanzania) with a Spanish or Mediaeval Latin epithet. Is there no dedication or reference to a collector or sponsor in the paper? I will retain the HBWAlive Key entry in abeyance.
 
Rensch introduces the subspecies on p.99-100, writing:
10. T. l. costae n. subsp.​
Gröſse etwa wie bei T. l. tropicalis. Flügelmaſse von 15 untersuchten Exemplaren 100-108 mm; durchschnittlich 103 mm; Schwanz 85-93 mm, durchschnittlich 88 mm. Untere Flügeldeckfedern und Körperseiten intensiver rostrot als bei allen anschlieſsenden Formen. Dadurch besonders von T. l. tropicalis unterschieden. Von T. l. cinerascens und T. l. niassae auſserdem durch die geringere Gröſse unterschieden.
Verbreitung: Küstengebiet Deutschostafrikas von Tanga bis Lindi: 2 Exemplare von Tanga, 2 von Usegua, 9 von Magogoni am Ruvu, 2 von Lindi. (Die Exemplare von Lindi haben eine hellgraue Oberseite.) Typus im Zool. Museum Berlin: Magogoni am unteren Ruvu, 9.IX.1912, Hofmann leg. Flügelmaſs 106,5 mm, Schwanz 88 mm, Gewicht 56 g.
Click to expand...
That's all. He cites the name in a few additional places in the text, but he explains nothing.
Based on the above, the collector would be "Hofmann"--don't know his first name. (leg. stands for legit = he collected in Latin.)

For the sake of completeness: he thanks Herrn Dr. Stresemann, Herrn Prof. Neumann, and Herrn Grote "für mancherlei Hinweise bei dieser Arbeit" at the end of the work. (First names, respectively and unless I'm mistaken, Erwin, Oscar Rudolph, and Hermann...)
 
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For the sake of completeness I have edited my ms and HBWAlive Key (q.v.).

P.S. Taphrospilus, if I had your given name I would happily acknowledge it.
 
Hi James, I am already in your Acknowledgements as we had some time ago mail contact if I rember correctly about Delattre and you wrote me that you will mention my name in the ack. This was before I discovered this forum. So I am the Martin in your Acknowledgements.
 
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