Lowland Akalat

SCI Name:  Sheppardia cyornithopsis
Protonym:  Callene cyornithopsis Bull.Br.Orn.Club 12 p.4
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Muscicapidae / Sheppardia
Taxonomy Code:  lowaka1
Type Locality:  Efulen, Kamerun.
Author:  Sharpe
Publish Year:  1901
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

SHEPPARDIA
(Muscicapidae; † East Coast Akalat S. gunningi) Percy Alexander Sheppard (1875-1958) British farmer, oologist, entomologist, collector, settler in Mozambique 1898-1916, and Rhodesia / Zimbabwe 1916-1958; "I have named the first species [Batis sheppardi] after its discoverer, and for the second a new genus seems necessary to which I have also attached the name of its collector   ...   SHEPPARDIA, gen. nov.  Resembling Bradornis in the narrower bill (6.25 mm. broad at the base), tail shorter than the wing and nearly square (only the outer feather on either side hardly a mm. shorter than the others); differing from that genus in that the fourth to sixth primaries are the longest, the second longer than the eighth; rictal bristles well developed, reaching to within 5 mm. of the tip of the bill.   SHEPPARDIA GUNNINGI, sp. nov.   ...   This bird, which in general coloration resembles the Callene cyornithopsis of Sharpe (Bull. B. O. C. XII, 1901 and Ibis, 1902, p. 95, plate 4), and which I at first took for C. sharpei or C. aequatorialis, differs from these birds in its almost square tail, and in not agreeing with Reichenow's diagnosis of the generic character: "Schnabel seitlich zusammen gedrueckt," whereas this bird has a flatter bill, resembling that of Bradornis, but a little more slender." (Haagner 1909); "Sheppardia Haagner, 1909, Ann. Transvaal Mus., 1, p. 180.  Type, by monotypy, Sheppardia gunningi Haagner." (Ripley in Peters, 1964, X, p. 33).
Synon. Gabelatrix, Prosheppardia, Vibrissosylvia.

cyornithopsis
Genus Cyornis Blyth, 1843, blue flycatcher; Gr. οψις opsis  appearance; alluding to greyish lores, supercilium and face (Sheppardia).

SUBSPECIES

Lowland Akalat (houghtoni)
SCI Name: Sheppardia cyornithopsis houghtoni
houghtoni
Col. George John Houghton (1873-1947) British Army, surgeon in Sierra Leone 1911-1914 (subsp. Sheppardia cyornithopsis).

Lowland Akalat (cyornithopsis)
SCI Name: Sheppardia cyornithopsis cyornithopsis
cyornithopsis
Genus Cyornis Blyth, 1843, blue flycatcher; Gr. οψις opsis  appearance; alluding to greyish lores, supercilium and face (Sheppardia).

Lowland Akalat (lopezi)
SCI Name: Sheppardia cyornithopsis lopezi
lopesi / lopezi
José Lopes (fl. 1903) Portuguese taxidermist, collector for Boyd Alexander in the Cape Verdes and tropical Africa. Subsequent amendments or corrections of original spelling lopezi to lopesi, even by the original author, are considered unjustified (subsp. Accipiter toussenelii, Bradypterus, syn. Halcyon badia, Poliolais, syn. Pytilia hypogrammica, subsp. Sheppardia cyornithopsis).