Masked Booby

SCI Name:  Sula dactylatra
Protonym:  Sula dactylatra TraitedOrn. livr.8 p.601
Taxonomy:  Suliformes / Sulidae / Sula
Taxonomy Code:  masboo
Type Locality:  Ascension Island.
Author:  Lesson
Publish Year:  1831
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

SULA
(Sulidae; Ϯ Brown Booby S. leucogaster) Norwegian name Sula for a gannet  < Old Norse Súla. The suppositions that this name is derived either from Gr. συλαω sulaō  to rob, or from Gaelic souler  sharp-sighted, are erroneous. In fact, the gannets Morus no longer hold this generic tag, which is restricted to the tropical and subtropical boobies; "LE FOU.  ...  SULA" (Brisson 1760): based on "Booby" of Catesby 1731, "Stultus" of Barrère 1741 and 1745, "Plancus Morus" of Klein 1750, and Pelecanus Piscator Linnaeus, 1758; "Sula, Brisson, Orn., 1, 1760, p. 60; 6, 1760, p. 494. Type, by tautonymy, "Sula" = Sula leucogaster Boddaert." (Peters 1931, I, 83).   
Var. Suca.   
Synon. Abeltera, Anaethetus, Dysporus, Hemisula, Parasula, Piscatrix, Prophalacrocorax, Pseudosula, Sularius.

sula
● Sula-Besi, Sula Is., Moluccas (Edolisoma).
● Norwegian name Sula for a gannet < Old Norse Súla; ex “Anseri bassano congener fusca avis” of Ray 1713, and Sloane 1725, “Booby” of Catesby 1731, “Anaethetus major melinus, subtus albidus, rostro serrato” of Browne 1756, and “Sula” or “Fou” of Brisson 1760 (Sula).

dactylatra
Gr. δακτυλος daktulos finger; L. ater black (i.e. with black primaries).

SUBSPECIES

Masked Booby (personata)
SCI Name: Sula dactylatra personata
personata / personatus
L. personatus  masked  < persona  mask.
● ex “Perroquet Geoffroy” of Levaillant 1805 (syn. Geoffroyus geoffroyi).
● ex “Chouette à Masque Noir” of Levaillant 1799, pl. 44 (syn. Pulsatrix perspicillata).

Masked Booby (tasmani)
SCI Name: Sula dactylatra tasmani
tasmani / tasmanica / tasmanicum / tasmanicus
Tasmania, Australia (named after Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603-1659) Dutch explorer who sighted and briefly visited the island in 1642, and first named it Van Diemen's Land after his patron Gov.-Gen. Antoon van Diemen).
● Tasman Sea (subsp. Sula dactylatra).

Masked Booby (dactylatra)
SCI Name: Sula dactylatra dactylatra
dactylatra
Gr. δακτυλος daktulos finger; L. ater black (i.e. with black primaries).

Masked Booby (melanops)
SCI Name: Sula dactylatra melanops
melanops
Gr. μελας melas, μελανος melanos  black; ωψ ōps, ωπος ōpos  face.
● ex “Rollier à Masque Noir” or “Kaialora de la Nouvelle Hollande” of Levaillant 1802, and “Black-faced Crow” of Latham 1802 (subsp. Coracina novaehollandiae).
● ex “Streaked Falcon” of Latham 1787 (Leucopternis).
● ex “Ypacahá cara negra” of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 373 (Porphyriops).
● ex “Lindo pardo copete amarillo” of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 101 (Trichothraupis).