Aegintha ruficauda thorpei Mathews

Aegintha ruficauda thorpei Mathews, 1912a: 431 (West Australia (Coongan River)).

Now Neochmia ruficauda subclarescens (Mathews, 1912) . See Mayr et al., 1968: 357; Schodde and Mason, 1999: 752–753; Dickinson, 2003: 732; and Payne, 2010: 354.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 721958, adult male, collected on the Coongan River, 20.53S, 119.47E (USBGN, 1957), Western Australia, Australia, on 18 August 1908, by F.L. W[hitlock]. From the Mathews Collection (no. 3538) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews cited his catalog number of the holotype in the original description and gave the range of thorpei as ‘‘ West Australia.’’ Paratypes are: Coongan River, AMNH 721959–7219961 (Mathews nos 3543, 3539, 3540), three females, 18–25 August 1908, collected by Whitlock ; Strelley River, AMNH 721962 (3536), immature male, August 1907, AMNH 721963 (3537), female, 25 August 1908 .

As noted above, two names were available for the western subspecies; Schodde and Mason (1999: 753), as first revisors, chose the name subclarescens over thorpei, both having been published at the same time. Dickinson (2003: 732) followed this; Payne (2010: 354) synonymized subclarescens with clarescens.