Who named Oriolus chlorocephalus speculifer (Oriolidae) and when, with comments on its type material

Abstract

Authorship of the southernmost subspecies of the Green-headed Oriole, Oriolus chlorocephalus speculifer, has been variously attributed to both Hans Edmund Wolters (1915–1991) and Phillip Alexander Clancey (1917–2001), or to Clancey alone. Some doubt has also surrounded when and where the original description was published. We demonstrate beyond doubt that the new nomen was first published in a paper in the Durban Museum Novitates on 11 April 1969, wherein authorship of the name was unambiguously credited to both men but no type was designated. In a subsequent paper, published on 20 August of the same year by Wolters and Clancey, and clearly intended to be the original description, the type material was clarified in greater detail and a single type was circumscribed, which under the ICZN Code must be considered a lectotype designation.