Malurus melanocephalus pyrrhonotus 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 : 103

Malurus melanocephalus pyrrhonotus Mathews

Malurus melanocephalus pyrrhonotus Mathews, 1912a: 362 (Queensland (Cairns)).

Now Malurus melanocephalus melanocephalus X M. m. cruentatus. See Schodde 1982: 107.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 602521 , adult male, collected at Cairns , 16.51S, 145.43E (Times Atlas), Queensland, Australia, in October 1909, by P. Schräder. From the Mathews Collection (no. 6074) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews gave his catalog number for the holotype in the original description. I have found three paratypes collected by Schräder at Cairns and cataloged by Mathews before the January 1912 publication date of the name: AMNH 602522 (6073), male, October 1908 ; AMNH 602524 (2343), male, August 1908 ; and AMNH 602525 (2342), male, July 1908. Four other probable paratypes were collected at Cairns and Tolga by Schräder at around the same date, but I did not find them in the Mathews catalog: AMNH 602523 , male, November 1908 ; AMNH 602526 , female, July 1908 ; AMNH 602527 , female, August 1908 ; and AMNH 602528 , male, September 1908. Other specimens from Cairns were either never part of the Mathews Collection , were collected too late, or were cataloged by Mathews at a later date .

Schodde (1982: 107) considered pyrrhonotus to be an intergrading population. This holotype has a very long wing (48.0 mm) and a rather short tail (44.5 mm), which measurements support its intermediacy.