St. Helena Crake

SCI Name:  Atlantisia podarces
Protonym:  Aphanocrex podarces Ibis 103B no.3 p.379 pl.9
Taxonomy:  Gruiformes / Rallidae / Atlantisia
Taxonomy Code:  sthcra1
Type Locality:  
Author:  Wetmore
Publish Year:  1963
IUCN Status:  Extinct

DEFINITIONS

ATLANTISIA
(Rallidae; Ϯ Inaccesible Rail A. rogersi) Gr. myth. Atlantis, the celebrated vanished island, traditionally located in the Atlantic Ocean, but having its origin in the destruction of Thera (Santorini), in the Greek Cyclades, by volcanic eruption in c. 1629BC; "Atlantisia, gen. nov.   Characters. Bill shorter than head, slender, compressed; upper mandible decurved; gonys upcurved, so that bill viewed laterally has a dertrum-like ending very similar to what obtains in a plover or pigeon.  Nasal grooves extending beyond middle of bill. Nostrils linear, basal, parallel with lower edge of upper mandible, overhung by operculum.  Culmen decidedly shorter than middle toe with claw.  No frontal shield.  Tarsus shorter than middle toe with claw; hind toe with claw half as long as tarsus; tarsus and toes distinctly slender.  Wings little developed, apparently incapable of sustaining flight; primaries soft-vaned, weak; hamuli present, but apparently not functioning; first primary shortest; secondaries still less developed; coverts very long, nearly as long as secondaries.  Rectrices—central, as long as middle toe with claw; all rectrices weak and loose vaned; rami discontinuous. Oil-gland tufted.  Coloration. Ralline.  Type, Atlantisia rogersi.  Distribution. Inaccessible Island, S. Atlantic.   Atlantisia rogersi, sp. nov.  ... Named in honour of the Rev. H. M. C. Rogers, Resident Chaplain on Tristan d'Acunha.  ...  It will be noticed that this diminutive flightless Rail, Atlantisia rogersi, has not even a generic affinity with Porphyriornis nesiotis." (Lowe 1923); "Atlantisia Lowe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl., xliii, p. 174, 1923.  type by original designation, A. rogersi Lowe." (W. Sclater, 1924, Syst. Av. Aethiop., I, p. 104).  Recent work indicates that this genus should be included in Laterallus.

podarces
Gr. ποδαρκης podarkēs  swift-footed  < πους pous, ποδος podos  foot; αρκεω arkeō  to assist.