Aplonis grandis malaitae Mayr, 1931

Lecroy, Mary, 2014, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, And Corvidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2014 (393), pp. 1-165 : 33

Aplonis grandis malaitae Mayr

Aplonis grandis malaitae Mayr, 1931b: 22 (Malaita Island, British Solomon Islands).

Now Aplonis grandis malaitae Mayr, 1931 . See Amadon, 1962a: 81; Mayr and Diamond, 2001: 400; Dickinson, 2003: 652; and Craig and Feare, 2009: 719.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 227576 , adult male, collected on Malaita Island , Solomon Islands (= British Solomon Islands), on 26 February 1930, by Hannibal Hamlin, William Coultas, and Walter Eyerdam on the Whitney South Sea Expedition (no. 39347).

COMMENTS: Mayr cited the AMNH number of the holotype in the original description. Paratypes are: AMNH 227559–227575 , 227577–227600 , 24 males, 17 females, 28 January–8 April 1930. Of these, AMNH 227577 was exchanged to ANSP. On 28 February 1930, the expedition ship France was anchored at Su’u, 09.10S, 150.55E (Times Atlas).

Mayr and Diamond (2001: 400) considered that A. grandis formed a superspecies with A. dichroa and that A.g. malaitae, listed as a megasubspecies, had distinctive characteristics. Craig and Feare (2009: 719) noted that malaitae may constitute a separate species.