Pyrrholaemus brunneus centra 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 : 140-141

Pyrrholaemus brunneus centra Mathews

Pyrrholaemus brunneus centra Mathews, 1922a: 489 (Central Australia).

Now Pyrrholaemus brunneus Gould, 1841 . See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 160.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 601180 (1736), adult male, 6 August 1914, and AMNH 601181 , female, 2 August 1914, collected on the Officer River, west of Everard Ranges ; AMNH 601182 (1733), adult male, 8 August 1914, and AMNH 601183 (1734), female, collected in the Everard Ranges, 11 August, 1914 ; AMNH 601184 (1732), adult male, collected at Flat Rock Hole, 20 mi east of Musgrave Ranges , 21 July 1914 ; AMNH 601185 (1737), 601186 (1738), and 601187 (1739), adult males, collected 10–15 mi west of Moorilyanna (5 Morrillanna, as on label) Well , 14–28 July 1914 ; AMNH 601188 (1729) and 601189 (1731), adult males, collected at Wantapella Swamp , 9 July 1914 ; AMNH 601190 , adult female, collected 80 mi west of Oodnadatta , 9 July 1914 ; and AMNH 601191 (1730), adult female, collected 90 mi west of Todmorden , 8 July 1914. All were collected by S.A. White, with his field numbers given in parentheses. From the Mathews Collection via the Rothschild Collection .

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews did not designate a type and gave the range as central Australia, based on a statement by S.A. White (which I have been unable to trace) that the Lower Murray River bird differed. Mathews (1922a: 489) wrote: ‘‘Of course the Lower Murray bird was the typical bird and I now name the Central Australian bird: Pyrrholaemus brunneus centra subsp. nov. as being lighter above and the throat a deeper red’’.

AMNH 601191 bears a yellow ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1922a: pl. 453, opp. p. 479, lower left fig.), but no indication of subspecies or type status was given. Later, Mathews (1930: 611) restricted the type locality to the Musgrave Ranges, 26.10S, 131.50E (USBGN, 1957b), but it seems necessary to consider all of the S.A. White specimens from his 1914 trip into the Musgrave and Everard ranges as syntypes of P. b. centra. There are additional syntypes in SAMA (P. Horton and B. Blaylock, personal commun.).

White (1915 a, 1915b) reported on his expedition into northwestern South Australia.