Dimorphic Jewel-babbler

SCI Name:  Ptilorrhoa geislerorum
Protonym:  Eupetes geislerorum J.Orn. XXXX. Jahrgang, Vierte Folge, 20. Band, III. Heft, No. 199 p. 259-260
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Cinclosomatidae / Ptilorrhoa
Taxonomy Code:  blujeb2
Type Locality:  Butaueng [lat. 6° 36'' S., long. 147° 51'' E.], New Guinea.
Author:  Meyer, AB
Publish Year:  1892
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

PTILORRHOA
(Cinclosomatidae; Ϯ Blue Jewel-babbler P. caerulescens) Gr. πτιλον ptilon  feather; ορρος orrhos  rump; "For many years an assemblage of Papuan Timeliidae has been united generically with Eupetes (type Eupetes macrocercus Temminck) of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. A preliminary survey of the Timeliidae in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy shows that this grouping is not correct, but that the Papuan birds are generically separable from Eupetes and that there is no name available. I therefore propose  Ptilorrhoa genus novum   TYPE, Eupetes caerulescens Temminck.   DIAGNOSIS.—Related to Eupetes but bill relatively much shorter, more decurved terminally, little wider than high; position of nostril more basal, the distance from its anterior edge to tip of culmen equal to or less than the distance from its anterior edge to the gape; tail slightly graduated, rectrices broad and obtuse; tarsus less than twice as long as middle toe without claw; entire feathering of head normal (not velvety); under tail-coverts normal; no bare skin about eye; no naked patches on sides of neck.   ...  The most noticeable point of similarity in the two genera is the extraordinary thick mat of feathers covering the lower back and rump.  The forms of Ptilorrhoa are:—  Ptilorrhoa caerulescens  ...  Ptilorrhoa castanotus  ...  Ptilorrhoa leucostictus" (J. L. Peters 1940).
Synon. Mollitor.

geislerorum
Bruno Geisler (1857-1945) and his brother Hubert Franz Geisler (1864-1936) German explorers, collectors in Ceylon, Java and New Guinea (Paul Scofield in litt.) (subsp. Ailuroedus buccoides, Ptilorrhoa).