Himatione Fraithii Rothschild, 1892

LeCroy, Mary, 2013, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 11. Passeriformes: Parulidae, Drepanididae, Vireonidae, Icteridae, Fringillinae, Carduelinae, Estrildidae, And Viduinae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2013 (381), pp. 1-155 : 25

Himatione Fraithii Rothschild

Himatione Fraithii Rothschild, 1892: 109 (Laysan Island, Sandwich Group).

Now Himatione fraithii Rothschild, 1892 . See Rothschild, 1893g: 3–4, pl. 9, Amadon, 1950: 174; Greenway, 1968: 94; Dickinson, 2003: 759; Pratt, 2005: 263; and Pyle, 2011: 116–117.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 459004 , adult male, collected on Laysan Island , 25.46N, 171.44W (Times atlas), Hawaii (5 Sandwich group), on 18 June 1891, by Henry Palmer. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Rothschild described the adult male, adult female, and young without designating a type, nor did he later ( Rothschild, 1893g: 3–4) name a type. Hartert (1919a: 171) designated as lectotype the single male specimen collected on 18 June 1891, which was actually marked ‘‘Type’’ by Rothschild. There are now in AMNH the following five specimens collected by Palmer on Laysan, and they are paralectotypes of fraithii: AMNH 453094 (Palmer no. 1073), immature male, 16 June 1891; AMNH 453095 (1083), adult male, undated; AMNH 453096 (1141), immature male, undated; AMNH 453097 (1084), adult female, 18 June 1891; AMNH 453098 (1080), adult female, undated. Other specimens may be in BMNH as part of the Rothschild Bequest.

Pyle (2011: 116–117) has recently called attention to the many spellings of the species name and has shown that the spelling fraithii is correct, even though the person for whom it was named spelled his name Freeth. There is no evidence in the original publication of H. fraithii that there was an inadvertent error in the spelling of the specific name, therefore that spelling must be used (ICZN, 1999: 39, Art 32.5.1).

This species is extinct.