Crested Lark - some subspecies (1 Viewer)

[Gonçalo Elias]

Hi all,

I would like to understand the origin or meaning of these subspecific names of Crested Lark Galerida cristata:

• G. c. festae (from Libya) - I found some ornithological publications that mention a "Dr Festa"; additionally, a North African subspecies of Rüppell's Fox Vulpes rueppellii cyrenaica was named by him. Is it the same person? Any more details who he was?
• G. c. helenae (from Algeria and Libya) there are five different candidates called Helena, but I can't figure out which is the right one.
• G. c. jordansi (from Niger) - maybe named after Karl Jordan?
• G. c. balsaci (from Mauritania) - I guess it would be Heim de Balsac, or are there any other possibilities?
• G. c. leautungensis (from China) - most likely a province or region in China called Leautung, but does it have an alternative name in English?

Thanks all for any help.

Gonçalo

 

[James Jobling]

In my Key MS I have:
festae Dr Enrico Luigi Festa (1868-1939) Italian zoologist, explorer, collector in Panama, Colombia and Ecuador 1895-1899, and Cyrenaica 1922 (subsp. Galerida cristata, syn. Poecile montanus, Ramphocelus dimidiatus x Ramphocelus passerini hybrid).
helenae • Hélène Lavauden (fl. 1925) daughter of French naturalist and forester Louis Lavauden (subsp. Galerida cristata).
jordansi Prof. Dr Adolf von Jordans (1892-1974) German ornithologist, collector, Director of Mus. Alexander Koenig, Bonn (syn. Burhinus oedicnemus saharae, syn. Cisticola juncidis cisticola, subsp. Corvus corax, syn. Dryobates minor hortorum, subsp. Galerida cristata, syn. Sylvia communis).
balsaci Prof. Henri Frédéric Jules Victor Heim de Balsac (1899-1979) French zoologist (subsp. Galerida cristata, subsp. Platalea leucorodia, subsp. Rhinoptilus cinctus).
leautungensis Liautung, a former province of Manchuria, China.

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

Thanks a lot James this is very helpful.

Best regards,
Gonçalo

 

[l_raty]

Galerida cristata festae Hartert 1922.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32428612
"Named after Dr. E. Festa, the traveller in many lands, who, with the exception of Dodson, who collected for Mr. Whitaker along the coast of south-western Cyrenaica on his journey from Murzah to Bengasi, was the first to attempt the ornithological exploration of Cyrenaica."
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Festa

Galerida cristata helenae Lavauden 1926.
p. 6 in: https://bibliotheques.mnhn.fr/media...1926_T010_N201/revue-francaise-d-ornithologie
"Nous avons dédié cette nouvelle forme à notre bien-aimée fille Hélène."
Born 1912 according to: https://gw.geneanet.org/pierfit?lang=en&p=helene&n=lavauden

Galerida cristata jordansi Niethammer 1955.
p. 57 in: https://www.zoologicalbulletin.de/BzB_Volumes/Volume_06_1_2/029_080_BZB06_1_2_Niethammer_Günther.PDF
No dedication, but indeed quite undoubtedly named after Adolf von Jordans.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_von_Jordans
(Note that Niethammer had dedicated (explicitly) Corvus corax jordansi to the same Adolf von Jordans two years earlier. p. 74 in: https://www.zoologicalbulletin.de/BzB_Volumes/Volume_04_1_2/073_078_BZB04_1_2_Niethammer_Günther.PDF )

Galerida cristata balsaci Dekeyser & Villiers 1950.
https://books.google.com/books?id=qIFTAAAAIAAJ&q="Galerida+cristata+balsaci"
No dedication, but Heim de Balsac is cited several times in this paper -- https://books.google.com/books?id=qIFTAAAAIAAJ&dq=balsac -- hence there can be little doubt, indeed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Heim_de_Balsac

Alauda leautungensis Swinhoe 1861.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/56936878
"I have named it after the Province of Leautung into a peninsula of which the bay flows." -- where "the bay" is "Talien Bay" (now Dalian Bay).
Liaodong (now in Liaoning province): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaodong

 

[PScofield]

Just one minor tweak

Adrien Joseph Louis Lavauden

Birth 19 June 1881 in Grenoble

Death: 1 September 1935 in Anjou, Isère

Renée Marie Jeanne Hélène de Monts de Savasse (née Lavauden)

Birth 20 Oct 1912 in Grenoble Isere

Death 8 Mar 1989 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France

P

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

Thanks Laurent Raty and PScofield.

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

Galerida cristata alexanderi (from tropical Africa ranging from Nigeria to Sudan) - named after Boyd Alexander?

 

[James Jobling]

alexanderi
• Capt. Boyd Francis Alexander (1873-1910) British explorer, collector, ornithologist (subsp. Amadina fasciata, subsp. Eremomela icteropygialis, Falco, subsp. Galerida cristata, syn. Indicator minor senegalensis, subsp. Nigrita luteifrons).

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

Thanks James.

 

[PScofield]

Hmm Yet another multiple people of the same name issue:

Col Boyd Francis Alexander
1834–1917
BIRTH 17 APR 1834 • Marylebone, London, England
DEATH 19 AUG 1917 • Cranbrook, Kent, England

Son

Lieutenant Boyd Francis Alexander

1873–1910
BIRTH 16 JAN 1873 • Cranbrook, Kent, England
DEATH 2 APRIL 1910 • Nyeri, Central Kenya, Kenya

If the honoree was was anything more than a Lt it would have to be Boyd Francis Alexander snr

 

[PScofield]

Yes a bit more investigation shows it was indeed: Lieutenant Boyd Francis Alexander (1873–1910). see some interesting attached articles...

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Galerida cristata alexanderi (from tropical Africa ranging from Nigeria to Sudan) - named after Boyd Alexander?

Gonçalo, regarding the dedicatee in/of the ('Nigerian') Crested Lark ssp. Galerida cristata alexanderi NEUMANN 1908 (OD here), yesterday new information were posted, in the thread Invitation to a Family Party with Boyd Alexander! (here), somewhat, at least partly, contradictory to what's told above (in post #8–11).

Hopefully (still) of interest.

Björn

---

... which (of course) also would be applicable for Neumann's "Amadina fasciata alexanderi", described in the same paper (as well as quite a few other alexanderi taxa, even if far from all).

🙄

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

Thanks Björn!

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

In the case of Dr Enrico Festa and the subspecies festae, shouldn't the correct spelling be festai?

I thought the ending ae was only for female eponyms.

 

[mb1848]

Same name for an amphibian Festa Shy Robber Frog Pristimantis festae Peracca??
ICZN (Wuhan Code)
31.2. Agreement in gender

A species-group name, if it is or ends in a Latin or latinized adjective or participle in the nominative singular, must agree in gender with the generic name with which it is at any time combined.

I'm grasping at straws.

 

[l_raty]

31.2 is not relevant here. What applies is 31.1:

31.1. Species-group names formed from personal names
A species-group name formed from a personal name may be either a noun in the genitive case, or a noun in apposition (in the nominative case), or an adjective or participle [Art. 11.9.1].

31.1.1. A species-group name, if a noun in the genitive case formed from a personal name that is Latin, or from a modern personal name that is or has been latinized, is to be formed in accordance with the rules of Latin grammar.​

Examples. Margaret, if latinized to Margarita or Margaretha, gives the genitives margaritae or margarethae; similarly Nicolaus Poda, even though the name of a man, if accepted as a Latin name, gives podae; Victor and Hercules, if accepted as Latin names, give victoris and herculis; the name of Plinius, a Roman, even though anglicized to Pliny, gives plinii; Fabricius and Sartorius, if treated as Latin names, give fabricii and sartorii, but if treated as modern names give fabriciusi and sartoriusi; Cuvier, if latinized to Cuvierius, gives cuvierii.

31.1.2. A species-group name, if a noun in the genitive case (see Article 11.9.1.3) formed directly from a modern personal name, is to be formed by adding to the stem of that name -i if the personal name is that of a man, -orum if of men or of man (men) and woman (women) together, -ae if of a woman, and -arum if of women; the stem of such a name is determined by the action of the original author when forming the genitive.​

Example. Under this provision, the species-group names podai from Poda, victori from Victor, and cuvieri from Cuvier are admissible. The names puckridgei and puckridgi may be formed from Puckridge.

In Latin, the nominative singular ending -a always becomes -ae in the genitive, irrespective of any gender consideration. (Although most nouns/names in -a are feminine, this is in no way an absolute rule. First-declension nouns/names of Greek origin in -as and -es, which are always masculine, also have a genitive in -ae.)
In nomenclature, the addition of an -i to the stem of any name denoting a man is also regarded as correct, irrespective of any Latin grammar consideration.

Just like podae and podai are both admissible in the examples above, festae and festai would both be admissible.
Incidentally, just like puckridgi is admissible in addition to puckridgei under Art 31.1.2 (= different choices of stem), festi would also be admissible in addition to festai under this article.

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

Thanks Laurent for the explanation.

 

[mb1848]

Thanks Laurent for the explanation.

 

[Taphrospilus]

Galerida cristata jordansi Niethammer 1955.
p. 57 in: https://www.zoologicalbulletin.de/BzB_Volumes/Volume_06_1_2/029_080_BZB06_1_2_Niethammer_Günther.PDF
No dedication, but indeed quite undoubtedly named after Adolf von Jordans.
Adolf von Jordans – Wikipedia
(Note that Niethammer had dedicated (explicitly) Corvus corax jordansi to the same Adolf von Jordans two years earlier. p. 74 in: https://www.zoologicalbulletin.de/BzB_Volumes/Volume_04_1_2/073_078_BZB04_1_2_Niethammer_Günther.PDF )

The Key to Scientific Names

Prof. Dr Adolf von Jordans (1892-1974) German ornithologist, collector, Director of Mus. Alexander Koenig, Bonn (syn. Burhinus oedicnemus saharae, syn. Cisticola juncidis cisticola, subsp. Corvus corax, syn. Dryobates minor hortorum, subsp. Galerida cristata, syn. Sylvia communis).

If Wikipedia is correct Adolf Petrus Margareta Maria Joseph Hubertus von Jordans (what a name). No idea if this is correct.

• Burhinus oedicnemus jordansi Neumann , 1932 OD Oscar Neumann (1932): Bemerkungen über neue und ungenügend bekannte Rassen paläarktischer Vögel – Ornithologischer Anzeiger – 2 (4): 145-150
• Cisticola cisticola jordansi Tratz, 1913 OD here
• Dryobates minor jordansi Götz, 1926 OD here
• Sylvia communis jordansi Clancey , 1950 OD here

 

[l_raty]

If Wikipedia is correct Adolf Petrus Margareta Maria Joseph Hubertus von Jordans (what a name). No idea if this is correct.

The Wikipedia page offers no source for this (the full name was added to the page on 15 Apr 2017, so far as I can see without any explanation), but this name is found in various editions of the Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der briefadeligen Häuser. (So I guess it must be correct.)

1907 ed. at archive.org : here (only his name and birth details -- he was still a teenager at this point).
1942 ed. (in full view) in Google Books : here (birth, occupation, marriage details, 5 children).