Nesoptilotis leucotis thomasi (Mathews, 1912) & Poodytes gramineus thomasi (Mathews, 1912) (1 Viewer)

[Taphrospilus]

This one seems very tricky to not to solve.

• Poodytes gramineus thomasi (Mathews, 1912) OD here
• Nesoptilotis leucotis thomasi (Mathews, 1912) OD here

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claim:

Little Grassbird ssp. Megalurus gramineus thomasi Mathews, 1912
White-eared Honeyeater Lichenostomus leucotis thomasi Mathews, 1912
Mathews was notorious for not supplying etymologies for the taxa he described. They may be named after Thomas Carter (q.v.), but this remains a guess.

The Key to Scientific Names
● Capt. Nicolas-Thomas Baudin (1754-1803) French Navy, cartographer, explorer, commander of expedition to Australia 1800-1803 (subsp. Nesoptilotis leucotis).
● Thomas Carter (1863-1931) English ornithologist, collector, pastoralist, explorer in Australia 1886-1921 (subsp. Poodytes gramineus).

If we assume it is a first name why not him mentioned by Mathews here?

TREGELLAS, THOMAS - Australian present-day Ornithologist who has contributed articles to the Emu and sent me notes and specimens which have been used in my Birds of Australia.

Of couse Mathews mentioned several other Thomas in the Supplement 4-5.

 

[PScofield]

Thomas Henry Tregellas
Birth 16 Jun 1864 Victoria, Australia
Marriage 11 Apr 1895 Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Residence 1909 Victoria, Australia
Death 10 Oct 1938 Coburg, Victoria

Well known Victorian Ornithologist specializing in Lyrebird biology but no record I could find of him leaving visiting western Australia nor Kangaroo Island. Always mentioned as Tom.

See of course Tregellasia.

 

[Taphrospilus]

The mentioned Tom Carter here.

 

[PScofield]

As for Poodytes gramineus thomasi (Mathews, 1912) is SW Australian. Tom Carter seems basically as certain as you can be with Mathews:

Megalurus gramineus thomasi Mathews HOLOTYPE: AMNH 597889, adult male, collected at Lake Muir, 34.28S, 116.35E (Times Atlas), Western Australia, Australia, on 24 April 1911, by Tom Carter.

As for Nesoptilotis leucotis thomasi (Mathews, 1912) restricted to Kangaroo - Tom Tregellas is a possibility (he did collect on King Island) but the collector of the type series was S.A. White.

Capt. Nicolas-Thomas Baudin (1754-1803) did explore the coast of Kangaroo Island in 1802 hence the supposition that the name honours him but it's a real stretch - he certainly had no place in collecting the type series. His name wasn't even Thomas but "Nicolas-Thomas"!

 

[Taphrospilus]

It might be worth to look who collected Ptilotis ornata munna no 6175 as Nesoptilotis leucotis thomasi is a new name for this description.

 

[PScofield]

Note that the OD you have linked to is the senior homonym and is not relevant to this discussion. The junior homonym has the same type series as Nesoptilotis leucotis thomasi as Mathews realised that he had used the same name twice. Thus "The collector of the type series was S.A. White". When you designate a replacement name nothing else changes. Otherwise it's not a replacement name. All discussed here:

http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/2246/6441/1/B348.pdf

 

[Taphrospilus]

Sorry, I anyway misread. It is a replacement of here and not of the one in Novitates zoologicae.

 

[PScofield]

Martin,

One thing you have highlighted here is that we have no idea what munna means!

The Key to Scientific Names - Birds of the World

Species accounts for all the birds of the world.

birdsoftheworld.org

James said “Etymology undiscovered; either an Austraboriginal name or one of Mathews's nonsense-names (see zanda) (cf. Munna Creek, Queensland).”

Think an edit may be needed here as I assume that underlined word (made by me) was an abbreviation Austr. Aboriginal?

Wiki says “The Indigenous Australian languages are collectively covered by the technical term "Australian languages" or the "Australian family"

see also https://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/__da...8/10043/appropriate_indigenous_terminoloy.pdf

So the names and type localities are:

• "Artamus personatus munna" MATHEWS 1912 (OD here) NSW
• "Dendrocygna eytoni munna" MATHEWS 1912 (OD here) s. QLD
• "Myzomela obscura munna" MATHEWS 1912 (OD here) n. QLD
• "Ptilotis leucoptis munna" MATHEWS 1912 (OD here) S.A.
• "Ptilotis ornata munna" MATHEWS 1912 (OD here) WA

A few searches found Wanna Munna Flats is a locality in central Western Australia about 1030km north-northeast of Perth BUT these birds are from disparate sites in 4 states so it's not that! And Munna Creek is in Queensland.

Then I noticed that 4 of these are described as being paler (especially around the head) than the nominate species - Artamus personatus munna however has " the black of the forehead much more pronounced and in having a thicker bill" this could be construed as appear white faced...

This cannot be a coincidence (at least for the other 4) – either Mathews believed (probably wrongly) that munna was an Aboriginal word for white or white-headed or even "a European" or munna has an origin in another language meaning white-headed or perhaps even "masked". The only other use of munna I could find was the word munna in southern India but this does not have the right meaning (tiny). There is an isopod genus Munna Krøyer but I am not sure the etymology.

Suggestions, please?

P

 

[Taphrospilus]

If you look at Wanna Munna the petroglyphas are indeed paler. But here p. 1132

Etymology. Munna is an Aboriginal word meaning flat.

 

[l_raty]

This cannot be a coincidence (at least for the other 4)

But Mathews used words denoting colour darkness/lightness in a majority of his ssp diagnoses, thus I wouldn't be too fast to exclude a coincidence.

(FWIW: On a quick count, which I don't claim to be fully accurate but which should give a general idea, almost 40% (I counted 95 out of 238) of the "subsp. n." in his "Reference-list" https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3109888 appear to be described as pale/pallid/paler/light/lighter in some way. Assuming a proportion of 40%, the probability to get at least four spp, out of 5 drawn at random, that would be described in these terms, would be 8.7%. Not really small enough to exclude chance alone...)

 

[PScofield]

Yes you make an excellent point Laurent. I think I am being silly trying to even guess Mathews motivation.

If anyone is interested in trying to read old german the OD for Munna Krøyer, 1839 is here:

http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=sourceget&id=46126

The etymology maybe at bottom of page 10

 

[Taphrospilus]

As fitting to....

Thomas Henry Tregellas
Birth 16 Jun 1864 Victoria, Australia
Marriage 11 Apr 1895 Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Residence 1909 Victoria, Australia
Death 10 Oct 1938 Coburg, Victoria

Well known Victorian Ornithologist specializing in Lyrebird biology but no record I could find of him leaving visiting western Australia nor Kangaroo Island. Always mentioned as Tom.

See of course Tregellasia.

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds

Superb Fairywren ssp. Malurus cyaneus henriettae Mathews, 1912 NCR [JS Malurus cyaneus cyanochlamys]
Green Rosella ssp. Platycercus caledonicus henriettae Mathews, 1915 NCR [JS Platycercus caledonicus brownii]
Henrietta Tregellas (fl.1912) was the wife of the Australian ornithologist Thomas H. Tregellas (q.v.).

The Key to Scientific Names

Henrietta Tregellas (fl. 1912) wife of Australian field ornithologist Thomas H. Tregellas (syn. Malurus cyaneus cyanochlamys, syn. Platycercus caledonicus).

Malurus cyaneus henriettae Mathews , 1912 OD here
Platycercus caledonicus henriettæ Mathews , 1915 OD here

It might be the time to het her maiden name and her life dates as we only know when tey married.

 

[PScofield]

---

Henrietta Etta Moody

Birth	1872 Williamstown, Victoria, Australia
Marriage	11 Apr 1895 Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Residence	1926 Kew, Victoria, Australia
Death	16 Jul 1930 Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

Father	William Moody (1838-1891)
Mother	Jane Johnson (1845-1929)
Spouse	Thomas Henry Tregellas (1864-1938)