Murray Lord
Well-known member
Thanks, yes you might be right about that.
Cheers
Murray
Cheers
Murray
The type species of Chamaetylas is (by original monotypy) Geocichla compsonota Cassin, 1859. (But this you certainly knew, the real question being: what is the taxonomic identity of this type species?)
Geocichla compsonota Cassin, 1859:
(The Camma river is in Gabon.) The species' identity remained long doubtful (eg., the footnote in Reichenow, 1905); the type was apparently mislaid at some point (see Seebohm, 1881), which presumably didn't help. But the specimen later resurfaced, and was examined by Bates, 1911, who identified it with Alethe alexandri Sharpe, 1901.
Alethe alexandri Sharpe, 1901:
("Similar to A. castanonota, but distinguished by black, and not deep brown, face sides. Total length 7.0 inches, that of culmen 0.8, of wing 3.6, of tail 2.2, of tarsus 1.05. Inhabits Efulen, Cameroon.")
Alethe castanonota Sharpe, 1871:
("A[lethe] with chesnut back : greyish head : whitish superciliary stripe : wings and tail deep brown, these washed chestnut externally : black chin : whitish throat, remaining underbody fulvescent. Total length 5.8, that of culmen 0.7, of wing 3.6, of tail 2.2, of tarsus 0.9." "a." denotes the first [and, in the present case, only] specimen; I presume "Fantee" refers to a place in current Ghana--the country of Fante people; Ussher is the collector.)
Cassin's name is currently in wide use for a subspecies of Brown-chested Alethe (now Chamaetylas poliocephala compsonota (Cassin), thus: Nigeria/Cameroon to NW Angola), following Mees, 1988 (who corrected the type locality of Trichophorus poliocephalus Bonaparte, 1850, previously thought to apply to the same taxon: this took Cassin's compsonota out of synonymy--while simultaneously making Sharpe's castanonota, which was in use prior to this, a junior synonym of poliocephala).
...However, this same name was also treated, without any explanation, as a synonym of Alethe diademata castanea (Cassin) by Mayr & Painter, 1964, in Peters' Check-list, which if correct would indeed imply Chamaetylas synonymous with Alethe, not with Pseudalethe. (And this may be the reason why the name was overlooked when Alethe was split...)
Edward Dickinson has kindly posted H&M4 vols 1 & 2 errata and spelling issues (plus many other publications) on ResearchGate.
www.researchgate.net/profile/Edward_Dickinson/publications
(If the type of Adelura was coeruleocephala, that of Phoenicuropsis being frontalis, the synonymy would be subjective, not objective as claimed in the first note above. But this is not the main problem.)Page 605
PHOENICUROPSIS should have been treated as an objective junior synonym of ADELURA (which is fem.). Consequently the four species concerned become Adelura frontalis (Vigors, 1831), Adelura schisticeps (J.E. & G.R. Gray, 1847) Adelura coeruleocephala (Vigors, 1831) and Adelura erythronota (Eversmann, 1841).Page 605
ADELURA Bonaparte, 1854 takes the following type designation note “Phoenicura coeruleocephala Vigors, 1831; type by original designation“. The following footnote replaces footnote 6: “Sangster et al. (2010) [2414] suggested use of Phoenicuropsis Wolters, 1980 [2971] for species frontalis and possibly schisticeps. Ertan (2006) [884] and Voelker (2010) [2819] found that species coeruleocephala and erythronota were part of this clade, consequently the name Adelura Bonaparte, 1854 has priority.“
This would translate as:[...] il faut en outre purger le genre Ruticilla de caeruleocephala, Vig., qui ne doit pas être séparée de sa rubeculoides. Mais qu'il soit bien entendu que c'est cet oiseau, qui n'est pas un Muscicapide, qu'il faut rapprocher des Saxicoliens, parmi lesquels nous le placerons comme type du genre Adelura, Bp., en compagnie de celui que nous faisons sortir de Ruticilla.
In the seperately printed "Notes ornithologiques sur les collections rapportées en 1853 par M.A. Delattre : et classification parallélique des passereaux chanteurs" On page 79 Bonaparte says: "Éliminez du genre Cyornis la Phœnicura rubeculoides, Vig., qui est, comme nous l’avonsAdelura is a synonym of Cyornis.
Phoenicuropsis should be used
Entire classification now available for free download as spreadsheet. Original version and 4.1 updated this month:
Entire classification now available for free download as spreadsheet. Original version and 4.1 updated this month:
https://www.howardandmoore.org/howard-and-moore-database/
Interestingly, version 4.1 includes some changes from the original version, although I can't find anything on the website which describes those changes.
Erreur 404. Not found
Replace PLECTROPHENACIDAE with the name CALCARIIDAE. LR The name Plectrophenacidae as listed by Bock (1994) has not been validly introduced. Unlike the name Plectrophanes Meyer, 1822, the root name Plectrophenax Stejneger, 1882 is not a junior synonym of Calcarius Bechstein, 1802, however as long as no subfamily is required there is no need to formally describe this family-group, based on Stejneger's genus.