Myzomela nigra westralensis Mathews

Mary, 2011, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (348), pp. 1-193 : 70

Myzomela nigra westralensis Mathews

Myzomela nigra westralensis Mathews, 1912a: 396 (West Australia).

Now Sugomel niger (Gould, 1838) . See Salomonsen, 1967: 364, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 331, Driskell and Christidis, 2004: 955, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 186, 188, and Higgins et al., 2008: 636–637.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 693407 , adult male, collected at Day Dawn, 1400 ft, 27.29S, 117.51E ( USBGN, 1957), Western Australia, Australia, on 25 July 1903, by F.L. [Whitlock] (no. 282). From the Mathews Collection (no. 5321) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews cited his catalog number of the holotype in the original description; the specimen bears, in addition to Whitlock’s label and Mathews and Rothschild type labels, a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1924: pl. 516, opp. p. 317, text p. 323) where it is confirmed as the type of westralensis. This single specimen of niger was acquired from WAM (no. 5828) in 1910. Mathews (1912a: 396) gave the range of westralensis as ‘‘ Western Australia.’’ Three additional Western Australian specimens from the Mathews collection came to AMNH and I consider them paratypes: AMNH 693403 (Mathews no. 3942), immature, Bore Well, East Murch- ison, 8 September 1909; AMNH 693404 (3941), adult male, East Murchison, 27 September 1909; AMNH 693405 (no. not found), nestling, East Murchison, September 1909.

Although this species was included in the genus Certhionyx by Schodde and Mason (1999: 331), they suggested the subgenus Sugomel , a generic name introduced by Mathews (1922a: 7), with type ‘‘ Myzomela nigra ashby [sic].’’ Subsequently, Mathews (1924: 328) referred to this species as Sugomel niger , showing that he considered it masculine. Molecular studies by Driskell and Christidis (2004) found that the three species included in Certhionyx by Schodde and Mason fell into three different clades, and Christidis and Boles (2008: 186, 188) adopted for niger the monotypic genus Sugomel . Higgins et al. (2008: 636) suggested that Sugomel is neuter because it ends in a Latin neuter noun, without explaning this. Mathews might have been equally likely to have based his name on Greek roots meaning either ‘‘black’’ (melas) or ‘‘honey’’ (meli). Because the derivation of Sugomel is questionable and because Mathews considered the name masculine, Art. 30.2.3 of the Code (ICZN, 1999: 36) is applicable and the species name should be S. niger , as was correctly listed by Christidis and Boles (2008: 186. 188).