Melilestes fergussonis Hartert

Melilestes fergussonis Hartert

Melilestes fergussonis Hartert ( in Rothschild and Hartert), 1896b: 237 (Fergusson Island).

Now Oedistoma iliolophus fergussonis (Hartert, 1896) View in CoL . See Salomonsen, 1967: 343, Coates, 1990: 313–315, Dickinson, 2003: 451, and Gregory, 2008: 337.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 693665 About AMNH , adult male, collected on Fergusson Island , D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, in October 1894, by Albert S. Meek (no. 15). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: No type was designated in the original description, and the number of specimens was not specified. Rothschild and Hartert (1903b: 438) listed as the type Meek’s specimen number 15, thereby designating it the lectotype. There are four paralectotypes in AMNH: AMNH 693664, 693666–693668, two males and two females collected by Meek on Fergusson Island in 1894. His base was near Nade ( 5 Nadi, as spelled by Meek), ca. 09.40S, 150.42E, on the southwest coast of Fergusson ( Meek, 1913: 45).

Dickinson (2003: 451) used the adjectival neuter fergussone. Gregory (2008: 337), however, noted that the subspecific name fergussonis is not ‘‘demonstrably adjectival and should be treated as a noun in genitive case, therefore invariable.’’