Green-backed Honeyguide

SCI Name:  Prodotiscus zambesiae
Protonym:  Prodotiscus zambesiae Ibis p.8
Taxonomy:  Piciformes / Indicatoridae / Prodotiscus
Taxonomy Code:  grbhon2
Type Locality:  Zomba, Nyasaland.
Author:  Shelley
Publish Year:  1894
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

PRODOTISCUS
(Indicatoridae; Ϯ Brown-backed Honeybird P. regulus) Dim. < genus Prodotes Nitzsch, 1829, honeyguide (< Gr. προδοτης prodotēs  betrayer); "Prodotiscus regulus n. sp.   ...   Genus ab Indicatore parum diversum, bene ut subdivisio ejus haberi potest. Præcipue differt rostro tenuiore, subulato, acuto, culmine medio arcuato, caudaque leviter emarginata vel subbifida. — Nares apertæ, rotundatæ, membrana molli cinctæ; vibrissæ nullæ; pedes, alæ, Indicatoris: Remiges ut illius 9 (1:ma deest; 1<4, 2=3.  Etiam colores Indicatoris. Nomen est diminutivum vocis Prodotis, synonymi Indicatoris, a NITZSCHIO dati." (Sundevall 1850); "Prodotiscus Sundevall, Öfv. K. Vet.-Akad. Förh., 7, 1850, p. 109. Type, by monotypy, Prodotiscus regulus Sundevall." (Peters 1948, VI, 63). The Brown-backed Honeybird is not recorded as leading man and mammals to bees’ nests, but feeds on the imago, exudate and pupae of scale insects.
Synon. Hetaerodes.

zambesiae / zambesiana / zambesianus / zambesiensis
Zambesi River, central Africa.

SUBSPECIES

Green-backed Honeyguide (zambesiae)
SCI Name: Prodotiscus zambesiae zambesiae
zambesiae / zambesiana / zambesianus / zambesiensis
Zambesi River, central Africa.

Green-backed Honeyguide (ellenbecki)
SCI Name: Prodotiscus zambesiae ellenbecki
ellenbecki
Dr Johannes 'Hans' Ellenbeck (1870-1942) German physician, collector in Somalia and Abyssinia 1900-1901 (Martin Schneider in litt.) (subsp. Prodotiscus zambesiae, subsp. Pterocles decoratus, subsp. Scleroptila psilolaema).