Mindanao Pygmy-Babbler

SCI Name:  Dasycrotapha plateni
Protonym:  Mixornis Plateni Braunschw.Anz. no.87 p.877
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Zosteropidae / Dasycrotapha
Taxonomy Code:  pygbab1
Type Locality:  Mindanao, Philippine Islands ; type from near Davao, fide Hachisuka, 1935, Birds Philippine Is., pt. 4, p. 420.
Author:  Blasius, W
Publish Year:  1890
IUCN Status:  Near Threatened

DEFINITIONS

DASYCROTAPHA
(Zosteropidae; Ϯ Flame-templed Babbler D. speciosa) Gr. δασυς dasus  hairy; κροταφος krotaphos  brow, temples; "This last bird is so anomalous in its structure that I propose to constitute it the type of a new genus,  DASYCROTAPHA³.   Base of maxilla densely clothed with short feathers, space behind the eye naked.  Bill about the length of head, and formed as in Mixornis.  Wing lengthened, longer than tail, first primary half the length of the second, which is a fifth shorter than the third, third a little shorter than the fourth, which is equal to fifth and sixth.  Tail moderate and square.  Tarsus strong; hallux with claw stout and long; digits short, slender; outer a little shorter than the inner.   DASYCROTAPHA SPECIOSA, sp. nov.  (Plate IX.).  Head crested; forehead with dense short plumes covering the base of the maxilla; circle around the eye, whole space before the eye, tuft on the side of the base of mandible, chin and uppermost part of throat pure lemon-yellow; crown of the head black; postoccipital plumes yellow; nape yellowish green tipped with black; a lengthened tuft of plumes springing from above the eye bright orange; a line immediately below this tuft black; a tuft of stiff decomposed feathers springing from below the eye and extending over the ears white or greyish white  ...  The hereditary affinity of this new form with Macronus striaticeps and Mixornis capitalis is betrayed by the colouring and markings of the dorsal plumage.   ...   ³ δασυς, villosus, et κροταφοι, tempora capitis" (Tweeddale 1878); "Dasycrotapha Tweeddale, 1878, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 114, pl. 9.  Type, by original designation and monotypy, Dasycrotapha speciosa Tweeddale." (Deignan in Peters, 1964, X, p. 302). This bird has also been given the substantive name Flame-temple, and I have suggested elsewhere that the birds of this genus be given the substantive Zosterornis, to reflect their new position in the Zosteropidae. 
Var. Dasycrotopha.

platenae / plateni
● Dr Carl Constantin Platen (1843-1899) German physician based at Amoy, China, collector in the East Indies (Aramidopsis, subsp. Cinnyris jugularis, Dasycrotapha, syn. Ninox mindorensis, subsp. Pachycephala cinerea, Prionochilus).
● Dr Margarete Platen née Geisler (fl. 1894) wife of German physician Dr Carl C. Platen (syn. Ceyx melanurus mindanensis, Ficedula, Gallicolumba, Prioniturus, Thapsinillas).