Acanthiza pusilla consobrina 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 : 154-155

Acanthiza pusilla consobrina Mathews

Acanthiza pusilla consobrina Mathews, 1912d: 78 (Leigh’s Creek, Central Australia).

Now Acanthiza apicalis apicalis Gould, 1847 . See Mayr, 1986b: 436, and Schodde and Mason, 1999: 201–203.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 600588 , adult male, collected at Leigh Creek , 30.31S, 138.25E (Times Atlas), South Australia, Australia, on 16 September 1910. From the Mathews Collection (no. 11631) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews cited his catalog number of the holotype in the original description. He obtained a single specimen of the form from Edwin Ashby (no. 568), but it was collected by J.R.B. Love, whose name appears on the label and who collected other specimens for Ashby at Leigh Creek ( Whittell, 1954: 455). In addition to Ashby’s label, the holotype bears Mathews and Rothschild type labels and a yellow ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1922a: pl. 447, top fig., opp. p. 409, text p. 412), where it is confirmed as the type of consobrina.

Mayr (1986b: 436) synonymized this form with A. apicalis whitlocki , and Schodde and Mason (1999: 201) showed a three-way area of intergradation between the nominate subspecies, with A. a. whitlocki and A. a. albiventris beginning close to the type locality of consobrina. The holotype is in very poor condition and perhaps faded, but it appears to be closer to Acanthiza apicalis apicalis .