GULF OF GUINEA ISLANDS' BIODIVERSITY
NETWORK
Confirmation of the position of the likely
type-locality of Chalcomitra rubescens
stangerii
ROBERT A. CHEKE
Bulletin of the British Ornithological Club 121: 62-63. Reproduced by permission of the author.
Moore (1995) argued convincingly in favour of Shelley’s and Amadon’s suggestions that the type-locality of the subspecies of the Green-throated Sunbird Chalcomitra rubescens stangerii (Jardine) should be taken as Bioko (formerly Fernando Po), Equatorial Guinea, and not the River Niger, Nigeria (Shelley 1876-1880, Amadon 1953). The original designation probably arose as the bird had been collected by the 1841 expedition to the River Niger.
Because the collection of the type was discussed during an account of
T.R.H. Thomson’s visit with C. G. Roscher to Robert Jamieson’s settlement near
Bassa-pu (3° 43’N, 8° 41’E), Bioko (Allen & Thomson 1848), Moore suggested
that the type-locality could have been this settlement. However, because the account was assumed to
follow a chronological order, she thought that the visit to the settlement had
taken place in April 1842, after Dr Stanger had left the island with the
specimen in 1841. Moore (pers. comm.) now considers that the assumption
about chronological order is unjustified and that Thomson only visited
Jamieson’s settlement once, so the description of the collection of the bird
does refer to the shooting of the type specimen. The settlement, which Thomson and Roscher reached by sea, was
stated as being at Shark River near Bassa-Pu, on the northwest coast, not far
from Clarence [= Malabo], but Moore was uncertain of its precise position. However, Jamieson’s settlement was at John
Beecroft’s house (hacienda) at “New
Town” and is illustrated in Martin del Molino (1993, Fig. 19). From this illustration, Dr Jordi Mas (pers.
comm.) determined the precise location of New Town as being at the mouth of the
river still known locally as the Rio Tiburones (= sharks), near Basupu (3°
43’N, 8° 41’E), c. 1.5 km northeast
of Punta Beecrof (as spelt on current maps: 1:50,000 Instituto Geográfica
Nacional de España, 1980, 1981) and 2 km due west of the southern end of Malabo
international airport. The river is
marked on current maps as the River Lopese (or Lopesa) and is shown as river
no. 23 in the map of McCall et al.
(1998), who nevertheless also referred to it as the River Tiburones.
On 25
April 1999, Dr Mas and a local guide, Salvador Nabacolle, escorted me to the
site, which I estimated from a Global Positioning System (GPS) as being at
3°45’N, 8°41’E. No remains of the
settlement, illustrated as being at the end of a spit of land on the west side
of the river and described as being on a small promontory (Allen & Thomson
1848), were discernible. There was,
however, an overgrown area of formerly cultivated land nearby and it was
probably here that in October or November 1841 T. R. H. Thomson collected the
bird (perhaps from a pawpaw tree Carica
papaya, Moore 1995, 2000 and in litt.). It was later described as Nectarinia stangerii (= C. rubescens stangerii) after Dr William
Stanger, a member of the 1841 Niger expedition who brought the specimen back to
England and whose life is summarised by Moore (2000).
I am grateful to Amberley Moore and Dr Robert Prys-Jones for information and
comments on an earlier draft. I also
thank Dr Jordi Mas for drawing my attention to Martin del Molino’s book and for
arranging the visit to “New Town”.
References:
Allen, W. & Thomson, T. R. H. 1848. A Narrative of the Expedition sent by her Majesty’s Government to the River Niger, in 1841 under the command of Capt. H. D. Trotter, R.N.. 2 vols. Richard Bentley, London. (First impression. The second impression published by Frank Cass and Co. Ltd., London, 1968)
.
Amadon,
D. 1953. Avian systematics and evolution in the Gulf of Guinea. The J. G.
Correia collection. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat.
Hist. 100: 393-452.
Martin
del Molino, A. 1993. La Ciudad de
Clarence. Primeros años de la actual ciudad de Malabo, capital de Guinea
Ecuatorial, 1827-1859. Ediciones Centro Cultural Hispano-Guineano, Malabo,
Equatorial Guinea.
McCall,
P. J., Cheke, R. A., Wilson, M. D., Post, R. J., Flook, P. K., Mank, R., Sima,
A. & Mas, J. 1998. Distribution of the Simulium
damnosum complex on Bioko island, Equatorial Guinea, and the potential for
onchocerciasis elimination by vector eradication. Medical and Veterinary Entomology 12: 267-275.
Moore,
A. 1995. More anecdotal evidence of the type-locality of Chalcomitra rubescens stangerii. Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 115: 134-135.
Moore,
A. 2000. A man of science. How the sunbird, Nectarinia
Stangerii, got its name. Nigerian
Field 65: (in press).
Shelley,
G. E. 1876-80 A Monograph of the Nectariniidae. Volume 2, London, published by the
author.
Address: Natural Resources Institute, University of
Greenwich, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TB, U.K.