Manucodia ater subalter Rothschild and Hartert, 1929b: 110 (Dobbo, Aru Islands).
Now Manucodia ater subalter Rothschild and Hartert, 1929. See Mayr, 1941: 168; 1962d: 184; Gilliard, 1956; 1969: 95–100; Coates, 1990: 430–431; Cracraft, 1992: 8–9; Frith and Beehler, 1998: 211–217; and Frith and Frith, 2009b: 462– 463.
LECTOTYPE: AMNH 677266, adult male, collected at Dobo (5 Dobbo), 05.46S, 134.13E (USBGN, 1982), Aru Islands, Papua Province, Indonesia, on 31 November 1897, by Heinrich Kühn (no. 414). From the Rothschild Collection.
COMMENTS: In the original description, Rothschild and Hartert designated as the type of subalter a male specimen collected at Dobo, Aru Islands, on 31 November 1897 by H. Kühn. There are, in fact, two specimens collected on that date by Kühn, but AMNH 677266 bears a Rothschild type label, indicating that it was the intended type. It was so cataloged at AMNH and has been so considered (Frith and Beehler, 1998: 213). In order to remove the ambiguity associated with two specimens bearing the same date, I hereby designate AMNH 277266 the lectotype of Manucodia ater subalter.
In their original description, Rothschild and Hartert gave the range of subalter as the Aru Islands, southern New Guinea to S.E. Papua, islands of Sariba and Yule. The following specimens are paralectotypes of subalter: Trangan Island, Aru Islands, AMNH 677262–677264, two males, one female; Kobror Island, Aru Islands, AMNH 677265, female; Dobo, Aru Islands, AMNH 677267–677273, two males, one female, four unsexed; Wokam Island, Aru Islands, AMNH 677274, female; Yule Island, AMNH 677275, 677276, one male, one female; Mailu District, AMNH 677277, sex?; Sariba Island, AMNH 677278, male, 31 May 1913, collected by A.F. Eichhorn (no. 5697); Mount Victoria, Owen Stanley Mountains, AMNH 677279, unsexed. Of these, AMNH 677272 was exchanged to FMNH in the 1960s. Except for AMNH 677278 from Sariba Island, collected after the description of altera, the lectotype and paralectotypes of subalter are also paratypes of M. a. altera (see above).