Björn Bergenholtz
(former alias "Calalp")
Here´s another short question on an inexplicable, little-known and totally unexplained scientific name, this time regarding the assumed "eponym":
almæ
● ... as in the long-debated subspecies "Hylocichla ustulata almæ" OBERHOLSER 1898 (OD, here) a k a "Alma's Thrush" [most often considered a junior synonym of nominate (Hylocichla) Catharus u. ustulatus NUTTALL 1840]
Curiously Oberholtser himself later (in The Bird Life of Louisiana 1938) called it Alma Thrush (and no longer Alma's Thrush, as he did in the OD) indicating that it´s maybe not an eponym after all!
Could it maybe be a toponym instead?
Is there such a place? An Alma, in Nevada? In the vicinity of where it was discovered or where any specimen was collected?
Or?
almæ
● ... as in the long-debated subspecies "Hylocichla ustulata almæ" OBERHOLSER 1898 (OD, here) a k a "Alma's Thrush" [most often considered a junior synonym of nominate (Hylocichla) Catharus u. ustulatus NUTTALL 1840]
Curiously Oberholtser himself later (in The Bird Life of Louisiana 1938) called it Alma Thrush (and no longer Alma's Thrush, as he did in the OD) indicating that it´s maybe not an eponym after all!
Could it maybe be a toponym instead?
Is there such a place? An Alma, in Nevada? In the vicinity of where it was discovered or where any specimen was collected?
Or?