Tanimbar Eclectus

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Remarks: This mounted pair, a male and a female, have ‘ (Typus) ’ written on their labels (with parentheses; Figure 3 c and 3 d), but this is not mentioned in the letter that accompanied the specimens when they arrived at the museum (Figure 1). While these labels are in a different style than the labels of Ptilopus flavovirescens (Figure 3 a) and the Geoffroyus timorlaoënsis female (Figure 3 f), they are very similar to those of the Geoffroyus timorlaoënsis male (Figure 3 e) and Artamus Musschenbroeki (Figure 3 g), and to labels written by Meyer and found on other specimens currently in the SNSD collection. They, hence, apparently represent a ‘ prettier’ version of Meyer’s handwriting, and also these labels are therefore considered to be original. ‘ Typus’ and ‘ Mus. Dresd. 86 ’, however, seem to have been added after the main text, probably by two different persons, and may likely have been added at NHMO. The original description of this species (Meyer 1882) was, however, based on a single female specimen, which consequently should be regarded as the holotype. This was at the MTD (now SNSD) but was lost during WW 2 (C 6051; Eck & Quaisser 2004). Consequently, neither of the specimens in the NHMO collection can be the true holotype of this taxon. Most likely these specimens represent a similar case to the E. roratus riedeli (NMW 50.145) in NHMW, which was included in the type catalogue by Pelzeln & Lorenz (1888) and there described as a ‘ typical specimen’ (‘ typisches Exemplar’) but later dismissed as a type by Schifter (1990). While no neotype, to our knowledge, has been assigned for this taxon, we refrain from doing so with reference to article 75.2 of the Code (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999). No collecting date was provided for these specimens, but the same reasoning as explained for Ptilopus flavovirescens above has been applied. However, as the shipment containing these specimens was sent from Dresden in July 1886, and they are not part of the type series, they may have been collected as late as 1886.