Acrocephalus albotorquatus Hartlaub

LeCroy, M., 2008, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 7. Passeriformes: Sylviidae, Muscicapidae, Platysteiridae, Maluridae, Acanthizidae, Monarchidae, Rhipiduridae, And Petroicidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 313 (1), pp. 1-287 : 26-27

Acrocephalus albotorquatus Hartlaub

Acrocephalus albotorquatus Hartlaub, 1880: 212 (Lado) .

Now Acrocephalus baeticatus cinnamomeus Reichenow, 1908 . See Hartert, 1928: 214, Urban et al., 1997: 108.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 594688 , adult male, collected in Lado , Sudan, on 28 July 1879, by Emin Pasha (no. 401). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Hartlaub noted that he had a single specimen with a white neckband in Emin Pasha’s collection from Lado. He stated that the type was in Bremen, but at some point the specimen was obtained by Rothschild. Hartert (1928: 214) drew attention to the fact that this is an aberrant individual of A. baeticatus .

Under A. cinnamomeus , in a superspecies with baeticatus, Traylor (in Watson et al., 1986a: 63) listed A. albotorquatus as a nomen oblitum, the name having not been used for more than 50 years. Traylor was technically incorrect, as the Code then in effect (ICZN, 1985) did not use this term, and authors wanting to preserve stability by not recognizing an unused senior synonym were required to refer the case to the Commission for a ruling (Art. 23b and Art. 79c). The current Code (ICZN, 1999) allows reversal of precedence (Art. 23.9). I suggest that this article be applied with reference to Hartlaub’s name, and thus Acrocephalus baeticatus cinnamomeus Reichenow, 1908 , becomes a nomen protectum and Acrocephalus albotorquatus Hartlaub, 1880 , becomes a nomen oblitum.

Lado was described by Hartlaub (1880: 210) as lying on the banks of the Bahr Djébel (5 White Nile) at 05 ° 01 9 33 0 N and 31 ° 49 9 36 0 E. This would be near the town of Mongalla, 05.12N, 31.42E (Times Atlas), and east of Mount Lado, 05.10N, 31.32E (Times Atlas).