Sao Joao del Rei is the type locality OCScytalopus speluncae (Aves: Passeriformes: Rhinocryptidae)—a response to Maurício et al. (2010)

摘要

The type locality and the identity of the holotype of the southeast Brazilian endemic Scytalopus speluncae (Ménétriés, 1835) have attracted considerable recent scrutiny and controversy, based in large part on doubts expressed in the ornithologicalliterature concerning some of the same author's other Brazilian type localities. Most recently, Maurício et al. (2010) recommended substituting a new type locality, the Serra dos orgaos, for S. speluncae, based almost entirely on an analysis of photographs of the holotype. Separately, some of the same authors (Whitney et al. 2010) described a new species, Scytalopus petrophilus, including, as a paratype, a specimen from Ménétriés' original type locality. Our own knowledge of S. speluncae is based ona thorough examination of the holotype and a comprehensive review of all available historical data concerning its collection. Because the holotype itself is partially damaged and the identification of some southeast Brazilian Scytalopus is unquestionably difficult using plumage alone (due to intraspecific variation), and further because all authors agree that only one species of Scytalopus occurs in the environs of Sao Joao del Rei, correctly identifying the type locality is of overriding importance toensure the correct nomenclature of the entire species-group of which S. speluncae is the senior synonym. All contemporaneous data (three expedition diaries, the original specimen label, and the original description) clearly demonstrate that Ménétriéscollected S. speluncae close to a well-known limestone cave in the region of Sao Joao del Rei, in the state of Minas Gerais, on 7 June 1824. Even the bird's name, speluncae (pertaining to "the cave") witnesses the validity of these facts. The availablehistorical evidence was dismissed by Maurício et al. (2010) in clear contravention of the recommendations of Article 76 A. 1 of the ICZN ( 1999), which governs such cases. It is also relevant that all available first-hand information concerning the holotype's morphology, as well as the evidence from its topotypes, supports the proposition that S. speluncae was collected where Ménétriés claimed. We further demonstrate that: (1) S. speluncae is the name applicable to the paler gray species with buff-fringed blackish feathers on the flanks, thighs, vent and upper tail coverts; (2) S. petrophilus must be a junior synonym of S. speluncae; (3) the only historical argument presented by Maurício et al. (2010) contra the type locality is based on an unrepresentative translation; and (4) their morphological analysis uses incomplete, contradictory or misleading data, and focuses on searching for specimens similar to the paler gray S. speluncae within the variation of the dark gray S. notorius, in order to justify emending the type locality. Crucially, none of these specimens of S. notorius is apparently similar to the holotype and topotypes of S. speluncae in respect to all of the latter's distinguishing characters.