Zosterops lateralis tropica Mees, 1969: 100 (Espiritu Santo).
Now Zosterops lateralis tropicus Mees, 1969. See Mees, 1969: 100–102, Bregulla, 1992: 252, Dickinson, 2003: 629, and van Balen, 2008: 467–468.
HOLOTYPE: AMNH 214054, adult male, collected on Espiritu Santo Island, 15.15S, 166.50E (USBGN, 1974), Vanuatu, on 1 September 1926, by Rollo H. Beck on the Whitney South Sea Expedition (no. 22507).
COMMENTS: Mees gave the AMNH number of the holotype in the original description and the range of tropica as ‘‘the northern New Hebrides: Malo, Espiritu Santo, Tongoa (off Espiritu Santo, not to be confused with Tongoa near Epi); Banks Group: Gaua, Melapav, Ureparapara or Blight (sic); Torres Group: Low Island, Toga. ’’ Specimens other than the holotype that Mees examined from those islands are paratypes of tropica. Mees visited AMNH when working on this part of his Zosteropidae monograph and would have seen all of the specimens in the AMNH collection. Paratypes in AMNH are: Malo, males, AMNH 213597, 213598; Espiritu Santo, males, AMNH 214050–214053, female, AMNH 214065, juvenile sex?, AMNH 215883; Gaua, male, AMNH 214056; Melapav, female, AMNH 214064; Bligh, male, AMNH 216128; Low, males, AMNH 216115– 216118, 216120, females, AMNH 216121, 216122, 216124, 216125; Toga, male, AMNH 216126, female, AMNH 216127. AMNH 216119 and AMNH 216123 had already been exchanged to NRM and CM, respectively, and would not have been seen at AMNH by Mees. AMNH 216116 had been exchanged to Rothschild and renumbered AMNH 459013 when that collection came to AMNH in 1932; it would have been part of Mees’ type series.
Bregulla (1992: 252) listed Tanna and Aniwa birds as Z. l. tropicus without comment. The holotype of this taxon had not previously been included in the type collection at AMNH.