Australian Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus trivirgatus Scientific name definitions

Piezorhynchus wellsi Ogilvie-Grant, 1911, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 27:105.—Goram [= Gorong].

The holotype, an adult male collected in September 1909 by Wilfred Stalker, is held at the Natural History Museum, Tring (NHMUK 1910.12.28.219) (5 Warren, R. L. M., and C. J. O. Harrison (1971). Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume 2: Passerines. British Museum (Natural History), London, UK. Close ).

This taxon was treated as a synonym of the nigrimentum subspecies of Moluccan Spectacled Monarch by White and Bruce (6 White, C. M. N., and M. D. Bruce (1986). The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). An Annotated Check-list. British Ornithologists’ Union Check-list 7. British Ornithologists’ Union, London, UK. Close ) and many other authorities.

Seram Laut Islands (Gorong, Manawoka) and Watubela Islands (Kasiui).

The characters that can be used to define this subspecies are in need of clarification.

Drymophila trivirgata Temminck, 1826, Nouveau Recueil de Planches Coloriées d’Oiseaux, livraison 70, Plate 418, fig. 1.—Timor.

Three syntypes (two adult males and an adult female) of Temminck’s name are all held in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden (RMNH.AVES.89723, RMNH.AVES.89724, and RMNH.AVES.89725); their collector/s and dates of collection are unknown (7 Dekker, R. W. R. J. (2003). Type specimens of birds in the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden. Part 2. Passerines: Eurylaimidae–Eopsaltriidae (Peters’s sequence). NNM Technical Bulletin 6, Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden. Close ).

Central and eastern Lesser Sundas (Flores, Sumba, Solor, Lembata, Alor, Wetar, Romang, Damar, Roti, Semau, Timor, Jaco, and Kisar).

Described under Field Identification.

Monarcha albiventris Gould, 1866, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1866:217.—Cape York, Australia.

The holotype, an adult collected on an unknown date by John Jardine (1807‒1874) (see 8 Jackson, C. E. (2015). John Jardine in Australia. Australiana 37(1):23–30. Close ) on behalf of Charles Coxen (John Gould’s brother-in-law), is held at the Natural History Museum, Tring (NHMUK 1881.5.1.1311) (5 Warren, R. L. M., and C. J. O. Harrison (1971). Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume 2: Passerines. British Museum (Natural History), London, UK. Close ).

Islands in the Torres Strait, and northern Australia (northeast Cape York Peninsula south to McIlwraith Range and Stewart River).

Subspecies albiventris is similar to the nominate, with gray median coverts, but has shorter white tips to the rectrices, and orange-rufous on the breast is sharply demarcated from the white below.

Symposiachrus trivirgatus melanorrhoa Schodde and Mason, 1999, Directory of Australian Birds: Passerines, p. 495.—Lacey’s Creek, Mission Beach. (9 Schodde, R., and I. J. Mason (1999). The Directory of Australian Birds: a Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. Volume 1. Passerines. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia. Close )

The holotype, an adult male collected in September 1972, is held at the Australian National Wildlife Collection, Canberra (ANWC 15378); the sole paratype is an adult male collected 30 miles west-northwest of Innisfail in September 1952 by James Allen Keast (1922–2009), and held at the Australian Museum, Sydney (AM O.39111) (9 Schodde, R., and I. J. Mason (1999). The Directory of Australian Birds: a Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. Volume 1. Passerines. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia. Close ).

Northeast Queensland (Annan River south to Seaview Range), in northeastern Australia.

Subspecies melanorrhous differs from albiventris in having deeper gray upperparts, blackish uppertail-coverts, and a variable amount of rufous extending across the breast to the belly and flanks.

Monarcha gouldii G. R. Gray, 1860, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1860:352.—Australia [= New South Wales, fide Mathews (10 Mathews, G. M. (1912). A reference-list to the birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18:171–455, 607–656. Close :324)].

Warren and Harrison (5 Warren, R. L. M., and C. J. O. Harrison (1971). Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume 2: Passerines. British Museum (Natural History), London, UK. Close ) reported that several syntypes, all from the Gould Collection, are held in the Natural History Museum, Tring, of which they mentioned an adult (NHMUK 1881.5.1.1312), which, however, seems unlikely to be a specimen Gray had access to (H. van Grouw in litt. G. M. Kirwan, October 2024). Recent investigations have identified three specimens, NHMUK 1850.7.20.159, NHMUK 1850.7.20.160, and NHMUK Vellum Cat. 15-503a, that were registered in the collection by the time of the original description and might therefore form all or some of the type series (H. van Grouw and G. M. Kirwan, pers. obs., September/October 2024).

Synonyms:
Piezorhynchus medius Sharpe, 1884, Report on the Zoological Collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean during the Voyage of H.M.S. ‘Alert,’ 1881–82, p. 14.—Port Molle, Queensland. The holotype, an adult male collected on 9 May 1881 by Dr Richard William Coppinger (1847–1910), is held at the Natural History Museum, Tring (NHMUK 1882.2.18.59) (5 Warren, R. L. M., and C. J. O. Harrison (1971). Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume 2: Passerines. British Museum (Natural History), London, UK. Close ).
Symposiachrus trivirgatus stalkeri Mathews, 1916, Austral Avian Record 3:59.—Inkerman, Queensland. The holotype, an adult male collected in September 1907 by Wilfred Stalker, is held at the American Museum of Natural History, New York (AMNH 654752); another specimen in New York, a second male collected at Inkerman in September 1907 by Stalker, is considered to be the paratype (AMNH 654752) (11 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 313:1–298. Close ).

Coasts of east-central and southeast Queensland and New South Wales (Shoalwater Bay south to about Sydney); non-breeding Cape York Peninsula and southern New Guinea (Trans-Fly region).

Subspecies gouldii is very like melanorrhous but is somewhat paler, although many individuals are believed to be barely distinguishable.