Beautiful Firetail

SCI Name:  Stagonopleura bella
Protonym:  Loxia bella Suppl.ind.orn. p.xliv
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Estrildidae / Stagonopleura
Taxonomy Code:  beafir1
Type Locality:  New Holland [= Sydney, New South Wales].
Author:  Latham
Publish Year:  1801
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

STAGONOPLEURA
(Estrildidae; Ϯ Diamond Firetail S. guttata) Gr. σταγων stagōn, σταγονος stagonos  spot; πλευρα pleura  side, flank; Reichenbach's 1850, plate LXXV, labelled Passerinae: Frigillinae genuinae, illustrates a variety of finches, buntings, and sparrows, but does not highlight the spotted flanks of this waxbill. "Loxia fusca, pectore nigro, rostro uropygioque rubris, lateribus corporis nigris albo maculatis" (Shaw 1796); "Gen. STAGONOPLEURA Reichb. 1850. **) Tropfen-Amadine.  Sporothlastes Bonap. nec Cab.  ...  **) Wir glauben diese, leider ohne Angabe eines Typus aufgestellte, Reichenbachsche Gattung richtiger zu deuten als Bonaparte (welcher obenein Steganopleura ! schreibt) wenn wir die Loxia guttata Shaw als Typus annehmen." (Cabanis 1853); "XI. Stagonopleura RCHB. *) Av. Syst. nat. t. LXXV  ... Tropfenfink.  ... St. guttata (Fring. — SHAW Mus. Leverian. iv.) RCHB.   ...  *) ἡ σταγων, ονος, der Tropfen,  ἡ πλευρα, ας, die Seite." (Reichenbach 1862); "Stagonopleura Reichenbach, 1850, Av. Syst. Nat., pl. 75. Type, by subsequent designation (Cabanis, 1851 [= 1853], Mus. Heineanum, 1, p. 172), Loxia guttata Shaw." (Mayr in Peters 1968, XIV, 353) (see Steganopleura).
Synon. Tavistocka, Zonaeginthus.

bella
L. bellus  pretty, charming  < benus old form of bonus  good.
● ex “Black-lined Grosbeak” of Latham 1801 (Stagonopleura).

SUBSPECIES

Beautiful Firetail (bella)
SCI Name: Stagonopleura bella bella
bella
L. bellus  pretty, charming  < benus old form of bonus  good.
● ex “Black-lined Grosbeak” of Latham 1801 (Stagonopleura).

Beautiful Firetail (interposita)
SCI Name: Stagonopleura bella interposita
interposita / interpositus
L. interpositus  interposed, introduced  < interponere  to interpose.
● "Similar to O. japonicus japonicus, but differs in having the wing and bill longer and stouter, and the coloration rather darker. It also differs from O. japonicus elegans in having the upper parts paler and less rufous in tone, and in having the wing and culmen perceptibly shorter" (Kuroda 1923) (subsp. Otus elegans).

Beautiful Firetail (samueli)
SCI Name: Stagonopleura bella samueli
samueli
Capt. Samuel Albert White (1870-1954) Australian Army, explorer, collector, ornithologist (subsp. Acanthiza pusilla, subsp. Caligavis chrysops, subsp. Calyptorhynchus banksii, syn. Cinclosoma cinnamomeum, syn. Falco longipennis, syn. Lichenostomus cratitius, subsp. Malurus cyaneus, syn. Petroica boodang, syn. Stagonopleura bella).