Diaphorillas textilis purnelli Mathews

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 : 118

Diaphorillas textilis purnelli Mathews

Diaphorillas textilis purnelli Mathews, 1914b: 99 (Mount Benstead, Alice Springs, Central Australia).

Now Amytornis purnelli (Mathews, 1914) . See Parker, 1972: 163–164, and Schodde and Mason, 1999: 118.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 598090, male, and AMNH 598091, female, collected on Mount Benstead, 23.34S, 134.16E (USBGN, 1957b), 45 km east-northeast of Alice Springs (Park- er, 1972: 166), Northern Territory, Australia, on 8 September 1913, by S.A. White (nos. 1192 and 1193, respectively). From the Mathews Collection (nos 18433 and 18432, respectively) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In his original description, Mathews noted the type as having been collected at Mount Benstead, Alice Springs, Central Australia on 8 September 1913. As he did not give specific catalog numbers, this designation did not distinguish between the above two specimens, so they must be considered syntypes, even though AMNH 598090 bears a Mathews type label. In Mathews (1923a: pl. 472, opp. p. 209), purnelli male and female are illustrated, but neither is said to be the type and their dates of collection differ from the above two specimens. AMNH type labels have been added to the syntypes. Mathews (1930: 632) also refers to an illustration in Emu (see A.J. Campbell, 1923: pl. 50 [not 40], opp. p. 161). However, this is an illustration of a mounted bird in the H.L. White Collection in MV, and offers no further evidence concerning the type status of Mathews’ specimens. Another syntype is in SAMA (P. Horton and B. Blaylock, personal commun.).