Meliphaga flaviventer subsp. tararae Salomonsen

Meliphaga flaviventer tararae Salomonsen, 1966a: 6 (Tarara, Wassi Kussa River, 90 miles west of Daru, British Papua (western division), southern New Guinea).

Now Xanthotis flaviventer saturatior (Rothschild and Hartert, 1903). See Rand, 1938: 14, Coates, 1990: 275–277, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 227– 228, and Higgins et al., 2008: 689–690.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 428247, adult male, collected at Tarara, ca. 08.50S, 141.50E (see map in Rand and Brass, 1940), Wassi Kussa River, Western Province, Papua New Guinea, on 8 December 1936, by R. Archbold, A.L. Rand, and G.H.H. Tate on the 1936– 1937 Archbold Expedition to New Guinea (no. 6321).

COMMENTS: Salomonsen gave the AMNH number of the holotype in the original description and considered the range of tararae to be from the middle and lower Fly River west to about the Digul River. Paratypes in AMNH are: Wuroi, Oriomo River, AMNH 422314–422320, six males and one female; Daru, AMNH 425242, male; Mabaduan, AMNH 425243, 425244, two males; Tarara, Wassi Kussa River, AMNH 425245, 425246, 425248–425258, seven males and six females; Lake Daviumbu, AMNH 428198–428211, ten males and four females; Fly River, east bank opposite Sturt Island, AMNH 428212–428230, 14 males and five females; Gaima, AMNH 428231–428241, four males and seven females.

Rand (1938: 14) had included these specimens in saturatior, commenting that specimens from the middle Fly River showed evidence of gene flow between them and specimens from the upper Fly. Schodde and Mason (1999: 228) also included all of the Fly River specimens in saturatior, commenting that the slightly paler coloration of specimens from the lower Fly River may possibly be the result of past gene flow from filigera of Cape York Peninsula. See Rand and Brass (1940) for a summary of the expedition and description of the collecting localities.