Kauai Amakihi

SCI Name:  Chlorodrepanis stejnegeri
Protonym:  Himatione stejnegeri Proc.Zool.Soc.London["1889"] ["1889"], Pt4 p.446
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Fringillidae / Chlorodrepanis
Taxonomy Code:  kauama
Type Locality:  
Author:  Wilson, SB
Publish Year:  1890
IUCN Status:  Vulnerable

DEFINITIONS

CHLORODREPANIS
(Fringillidae; Ϯ Kauai Amakihi C. stejnegeri) Gr. χλωρος khlōros  green; genus Drepanis Temminck, 1820, mamo; "Leaving this question for future solution, it must here be remarked that of the species attributed in the present work to the genus Himatione, H. sanguinea, which is the type of that genus, should in Mr. Perkins's opinion alone remain in it ¹, while those with straight bill (H. maculata, H. montana, H. mana, and H. newtoni)— though not H. parva — together with Loxops flammea, should be referred to Oreomyza and those with a curved bill should be placed in a new genus Chlorodrepanis, which he thus characterizes: — "Primaries pointed and not truncate at the apex; nasal opercula with bristles at the base and not overhung by antrorse feathers; brush tongue thin and tubular; second primary a little shorter than the third; bill curved." Hence we have:— Chlorodrepanis stejnegeri, C. chloris, C. chloridoïdes, C. kalaana, C. virens, C. wilsoni   ...   ¹ H. freethi of the island of Laysan forming a second species." (Wilson & Evans 1899); "Chlorodrepanis Wilson and Evans (ex Perkins MS), 1899, Aves Hawaiienses, p. xxi. Type, by subsequent designation (Richmond, 1902, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 24, p. 673), Himatione stejnegeri Wilson." (Greenway in Peters, 1986, XIV, p. 96). The taxonomy of the Hawaiian honeycreepers is complex. The Kauai Amakihi (formerly Hemignathus kauaiensis) and its congeners have, in the past, been placed in divergent genera necessitating changes of specific names.

stejnegeri
Dr Leonhard Hess Stejneger (1851–1943) Norwegian zoologist resident in USA 1881-1943, Curator Smithsonian Institution 1884-1943 (‡Akialoa, subsp. Anthus gustavi, subsp. Columba janthina, subsp. Dendrocopos leucotos, syn. Hemignathus kauaiensis, subsp. Hypsipetes amaurotis, Melanitta, syn. Parus major nigriloris, subsp. Saxicola torquatus, syn. Spindalis zena, subsp. Spinus xanthogastrus, subsp. Zosterops japonicus).