Sooty Tern

SCI Name:  Onychoprion fuscatus
Protonym:  Sterna fuscata Syst.Nat.ed.12 ed.12 p.228
Taxonomy:  Charadriiformes / Laridae / Onychoprion
Taxonomy Code:  sooter1
Type Locality:  Santo Domingo.
Author:  Linnaeus
Publish Year:  1766
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

ONYCHOPRION
(Laridae; Ϯ Sooty Tern O. fuscatus) Gr. ονυξ onux, ονυχος onukhos  claw, nail; πριων priōn, πριονος prionos  saw; "β. Hirundines aquaticae.  Genus Onychoprion Wagl., Reicherschwalbe.  (Genus novum.)  Wesentliches äußeres Kennzeichen: unguis digiti medii latere interno ut in Ardeis et Caprimulgis serratus.  Hierher: Sterna serrata Forster.  Sieh Wagler, Natürl. Syst. der Amphib. p. 89." (Wagler 1832); "Onychoprion Wagler, Isis, 1832, col. 277—type, by monotypy, Sterna serrata Wagler (ex Forster MS.) = Sterna fuscata Linnaeus." (Hellmayr & Conover 1948, XIII, 302). 
Var. Onynochoprion. 
Synon. Dipsaleon, Haliplana, Melanosterna, Planetis, Thalassipora.

fuscatus
L. fuscatus dark  < fuscare  to darken  < fuscus  dark, black.
● ex “Hirondelle de Mer brune” of Brisson 1760; “Linnaeus’s S. fuscata ...is based on a young bird” (BOU 1915) (Onychoprion).

SUBSPECIES

Sooty Tern (fuscatus)
SCI Name: Onychoprion fuscatus fuscatus
fuscatus
L. fuscatus dark  < fuscare  to darken  < fuscus  dark, black.
● ex “Hirondelle de Mer brune” of Brisson 1760; “Linnaeus’s S. fuscata ...is based on a young bird” (BOU 1915) (Onychoprion).

Sooty Tern (nubilosus)
SCI Name: Onychoprion fuscatus nubilosus
nubilosa / nubilosus / nubiolosa
Late L. nubilosus  cloudy  < L. nubilus  cloudy  < nubes, nubis  cloud.

Sooty Tern (infuscatus)
SCI Name: Onychoprion fuscatus infuscatus
infuscata / infuscatus
L. infuscatus  dusky  < infuscare  to make dark  < infuscus  dusky, blackish.
● ex “Curucáu Afeytado” of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 365 (Phimosus).
● ex “Perroquet à franges souci” of Levaillant 1801-1805 (syn. Poicephalus robustus).

Sooty Tern (serratus)
SCI Name: Onychoprion fuscatus serratus
serratus
L. serratus  toothed like a saw  < serra  saw.
● ex “Crested Black Cuckow” of Latham 1782 (subsp. Clamator jacobinus).

Sooty Tern (kermadeci)
SCI Name: Onychoprion fuscatus kermadeci
kermadecensis / kermadeci
Kermadec Is., Pacific Ocean (named after French mariner and explorer Capt. Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec (1748-1793)).
● Erroneous TL. Kermadec Is. (= Mackay, Queensland, Australia) (syn. Anous minutus).
● Erroneous TL. Kermadec I. (= Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) (syn. Onychoprion fuscatus serratus).

Sooty Tern (oahuensis)
SCI Name: Onychoprion fuscatus oahuensis
oahensis / oahuensis
Oahu, Hawaiian Is.

Sooty Tern (crissalis)
SCI Name: Onychoprion fuscatus crissalis
crissale / crissalis
Mod. L. crissalis  crissal, of the vent  < crissum  vent, lower tail-coverts  < L. crissare  to copulate, “used of a certain motion of the haunches” (Coues 1882).

Sooty Tern (luctuosus)
SCI Name: Onychoprion fuscatus luctuosus
luctuosa / luctuosus
L. luctuosus  mournful (i.e. black-plumaged)  < luctus  mourning  < lugere  to mourn.