Long-tailed Sylph

SCI Name:  Aglaiocercus kingii
Protonym:  Trochilus kingi LesTrochilidees p.107 pl.38
Taxonomy:  Caprimulgiformes / Trochilidae / Aglaiocercus
Taxonomy Code:  lotsyl1
Type Locality:  Jamaica, error = Bogota, Colombia.
Author:  Lesson
Publish Year:  1832
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

AGLAIOCERCUS
(Trochilidae; Ϯ Blue-throated Sylph A. kingii) Gr. αγλαια aglaia  splendour, beauty  < αγλαος aglaos  splendid; κερκος kerkos  tail; "Lesbia Lesson 1833 (Troch. Index Gen., p. XVII, 1833) contained three species, sapho, nuna, and kingii. Gray three times designated Trochilus forficatus Linnaeus as type species under the mistaken notion that kingii was a synonym, but since forficatus was not among the original species, these designations  are invalid. Salvin (Cat. Birds. Brit. Mus., 16, p. 146, 1892) seems to have been the first to comply with modern requirements when he designated nuna as the type of Lesbia. Incidentally this requires the use of Lesbia for the genus known recently as Psalidoprymna, but it leaves the present genus without a name. To supply the deficiency I propose the name Aglaiocercus with Ornismya kingii Lesson as type species." (J. T. Zimmer 1930).
Synon. Cyanolesbia.

kingi / kingii
● Capt. James King (1750-1784) Royal Navy, explorer in the Pacific with Capt. Cook 1776-1779 (subsp. Acrocephalus familiaris).
● Rear-Adm. Phillip Parker King (1791-1856) Royal Navy, surveyor in Australia 1817-1822 and tropical America 1825-1830, collector (Aglaiocercus, syn. Larus pacificus, subsp. Oriolus flavocinctus, syn. Sephanoides sephaniodes, syn. Veniliornis lignarius).
● King I., Bass Strait, Australia (syn. Anthochaera paradoxa, syn. Colluricincla harmonica strigata, subsp. Melanodryas vittata, syn. Melithreptus validirostris, syn. Pardalotus striatus).
● Benjamin Francis King (b. 1937) US ornithologist, research associate at AMNH (subsp. Heterophasia desgodinsi).
● Sir George King (1840-1909) British botanist, first Superintendent of Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta 1871, initiated Botanical Survey of India (syn. Oenanthe chrysopygia).
● Harold Henry King (1885-1954) British government entomologist in the Sudan 1906-1932 (syn. Trachyphonus margaritatus).

SUBSPECIES

Long-tailed Sylph (margarethae)
SCI Name: Aglaiocercus kingii margarethae
margaretae / margaretha / margarethae / margarettae
• Margarethe Heine (1847-1932) sister of German ornithologist Ferdinand Heine, Jr. (subsp. Aglaiocercus kingii, subsp. Tanysiptera galatea).
• Margaret Forbes Moore née Cleaves (fl. 1937) second wife of US ornithologist Robert T. Moore (subsp. Atthis heloisa).
• Dr Margarethe Blasius née Uhde (1858-1907) wife of German ornithologist Wilhelm A. H. Blasius (Laurent Raty in litt.) (Ceyx).
• Princess Louise Margaret Alexandra Victoria Agnes (1860-1917) Duchess of Connaught, daughter of Prince Friedrich of Prussia, and wife of Field Marshall Prince Arthur Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Charmosyna).
• Margaret Louise Zimmer née Thompson (d. 1945) wife of US ornithologist John T. Zimmer (subsp. Coeligena torquata).
• Margaret Fitzell Gilliard née Tifft (1918-2008) wife of US ornithologist E. Thomas Gilliard (subsp. Microptilotis montanus).
• Dr Margaret Morse Nice (1883-1974) US ornithologist, child psychologist (Payevsky 2018 per Björn Bergenholtz) (syn. Passer montanus).
• Margaretta Lammot DuPont Greenewalt (1902-1991) wife of US businessman Crawford Hallock Greenewalt, President of DuPont Corporation 1948-1962, conservationist, photographer (Phaethornis).
• Margaretha Auguste Henriette Caroline Louise Gräfin von Plessen (b. 1894) sister of German explorer Victor Baron von Plessen (Paul Scofield in litt.) (syn. Ptilinopus melanospilus chrysorrhous).
• Margareta le Roi (fl. 1932) wife of German ornithologist Dr Otto le Roi (syn. Ptilopsis leucotis).
• Margarethe Fanny Charlotte Johansen née Busch (d. 1885) mother of Russian zoologist and explorer Prof. Hermann Johansen (syn. Saxicola rubetra).
• Margarete Mayr née Simon (1912-1990) wife of US/German ornithologist Ernst Mayr (Zoothera).

Long-tailed Sylph (caudatus)
SCI Name: Aglaiocercus kingii caudatus
caudata / caudatus
L. caudatus  tailed, having a (long/short) tail  < cauda  tail.
● ex “Parus caudatus” of Gessner 1555, Aldrovandus 1599, and Willughby 1676, “Long-tail’d Titmouse” of Ray 1713, and “Parus vertice albo, cauda corpore longiore” of Linnaeus 1746 (Aegithalos).
● ex “Merle vert à longue queue de Sénégal” of Brisson 1760 (Lamprotornis).
● ex “Gobe-mouche à longue queue de Madagascar” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 248, fig. 1 (syn. Terpsiphone mutata).
● ex “Courly à col blanc de Cayenne” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 976, and “Grand Courlis de Cayenne” of de Buffon 1770-1785 (Theristicus).

Long-tailed Sylph (emmae)
SCI Name: Aglaiocercus kingii emmae
emma / emmae
● Emma Karoline Wilhelmine von Bülow Gräfin von Berlepsch (1855-1937) wife of German ornithologist Hans Graf von Berlepsch (subsp. Aglaiocercus kingii, syn. Touit stictopterus).
● Emma Jabouille (fl. 1927) wife of French colonial administrator Pierre Jabouille in Indochina (subsp. Leptocoma brasiliana).
● Emma Salvadori née Jourdan (1846-1928) wife of Alfredo Salvadori and sister-in-law of Count Salvadori (Pyrrhura).
● Female eponym; perhaps after Emma Emilie Hartlaub (b. 1860) daughter of German ornithologist Carl Johan Gustav Hartlaub (Björn Bergenholtz in litt.), or a lapsus for emini (Hartlaub 1890, Journ. für Ornith., ser. 4, 18 (190), 152) (syn. Saxicola torquatus axillaris).

Long-tailed Sylph (kingii)
SCI Name: Aglaiocercus kingii kingii
kingi / kingii
● Capt. James King (1750-1784) Royal Navy, explorer in the Pacific with Capt. Cook 1776-1779 (subsp. Acrocephalus familiaris).
● Rear-Adm. Phillip Parker King (1791-1856) Royal Navy, surveyor in Australia 1817-1822 and tropical America 1825-1830, collector (Aglaiocercus, syn. Larus pacificus, subsp. Oriolus flavocinctus, syn. Sephanoides sephaniodes, syn. Veniliornis lignarius).
● King I., Bass Strait, Australia (syn. Anthochaera paradoxa, syn. Colluricincla harmonica strigata, subsp. Melanodryas vittata, syn. Melithreptus validirostris, syn. Pardalotus striatus).
● Benjamin Francis King (b. 1937) US ornithologist, research associate at AMNH (subsp. Heterophasia desgodinsi).
● Sir George King (1840-1909) British botanist, first Superintendent of Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta 1871, initiated Botanical Survey of India (syn. Oenanthe chrysopygia).
● Harold Henry King (1885-1954) British government entomologist in the Sudan 1906-1932 (syn. Trachyphonus margaritatus).

Long-tailed Sylph (mocoa)
SCI Name: Aglaiocercus kingii mocoa
mocoa
● Mocoa, Colombia, “an ancient capital of the Indians, the environs of which are inundated for five or six months of the year, which is situated on the borders of the Anthropophagous nations, the Huitotos and Mesalles, and rarely visited by Europeans” (Gould 1861) (subsp. Aglaiocercus kingii).
● See: maccoa (Oxyura).

Long-tailed Sylph (smaragdinus)
SCI Name: Aglaiocercus kingii smaragdinus
smaragdinus
L. smaragdinus  of the emerald, smaragdine  < smaragdus  emerald  < Gr. σμαραγδος smaragdos  emerald.
● ex “Sucrier à Plastron Rouge” of Levaillant 1812, pl. 300 (syn. Cinnyris afer).
● ex “Perruche des terres magellaniques” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 85, “Perruche émeraude” of de Buffon 1770-1783, and “Emerald Parrot” of Latham 1781 (syn. Enicognathus ferrugineus).