White-naped Honeyeater

SCI Name:  Melithreptus lunatus
Protonym:  Certhia lunata Ois.Dores[Audebert & Vieillot] 2 p.95 pl.61
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Meliphagidae / Melithreptus
Taxonomy Code:  whnhon2
Type Locality:  Nouvelle Hollande [= New South Wales] .
Author:  Vieillot
Publish Year:  1802
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MELITHREPTUS
(Meliphagidae; Ϯ White-naped Honeyeater M. lunatus) Gr. μελιθρεπτος melithreptos  honey-fed  < μελι meli, μελιτος melitos  honey; θρεπτα threpta  feeding  < τρεφω trephō  to nourish; "162. HEOROTAIRE, Melithreptus.  Certhia, Linn. Gm. Lath.  Bec arrondi à la base, entier, plus court, ou plus long que la tête, arqué en faucille, acuminé.—Langue ou divisée en 2 filets, ou ciliée à la pointe.—Les première et deuxième remiges les plus longues.  2 sections.   Esp. Heorotaire fuscalbin.—Hoho, Vieill. Ois. dorés.   ...   Melithreptus [μελιθερωτος [sic], melle nutritus]." (Vieillot 1816); "Melithreptus Vieillot, 1816, Analyse, p. 46. Type, by subsequent designation (Gadow, 1884, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 9, p. 204), Certhia lunulata Shaw (error for lunata) = Certhia lunata Vieillot.¹   ...   ¹ This is the first correct type designation. It is usually stated that the type designation is based on monotypy, but Vieillot actually placed two species in his Melithreptus, namely "Heorotaire fuscalbin" (= Certhia lunata Vieillot) and "Hoho" (= Certhia pacifica Gmelin), referring to Vieillot, 1802, Oiseaux Dorés, 2, pls. 61, 63, respectively. G. R. Gray, 1840, List Gen. Birds, ed. 1, p. 15 cited Melithreptus as a synonym to Acanthorhynchus, but in the second edition (1841, p. 16) stated that he wanted to retain Melithreptus as the name for the "first section" (i.e. Certhia lunata), "to which it seems more proper that it should be applied." This cannot be accepted as a definite type designation." (Salomonsen in Peters 1967, XII, 394).
Var. Melethreptus, Melithreptes, Melitreptus, Melitihreptus.
Synon. Dialis, Eidopsarus, Gymnophrys, Haematops.

lunatus
L. lunatus  crescent-shaped, sickle-shaped, lunate  < luna  moon.
● ex “Fuscalbin” of Audebert & Vieillot 1802 (Melithreptus).