Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

SCI Name:  Merops hirundineus
Protonym:  Merops hirundineus Cat.Rer.nat.rar. p.21 no.213
Taxonomy:  Coraciiformes / Meropidae / Merops
Taxonomy Code:  stbeat1
Type Locality:  No locality = Orange River, South Africa, ex Levaillant.
Author:  Lichtenstein, AAH
Publish Year:  1793
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MEROPS
(Meropidae; Ϯ European Bee-eater M. apiaster) L. merops, meropis  bee-eater  < Gr. μεροψ merops  bee-eater; "57. MEROPS.  Rostrum curvatum, compressum, carinatum.  Lingua apice laciniata.  Digiti infimo articulo coadunati: postico distincto." (Linnaeus 1758); "Merops Linné, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, p. 117. Type, by tautonymy, Merops apiaster Linné (Merops, prebinomial specific name in synonymy)." (Peters 1945, V, 233). Linnaeus's Merops comprised four species (M. Apiaster, M. viridis, M. cinereus, M. cafer).
Synon. Aerops, Apiaster, Archimerops, Blepharomerops, Bombylonax, Coccolarynx, Cosmaerops, Dicreadium, Dicrocercus, Melittias, Melittophagus, Melittophas, Melittotheres, Meropiscus, Micromerops, Patricus, Phlothrus, Spheconax, Sphecophobus, Tachymerops, Tephraerops, Urica.

hirundinea / hirundineus
L. hirundineus of swallows  < hirundo  swallow (cf. Med. L. hirundineus  swallow-like, migratory).
● ex “Guêpier à Queue Fourchue” or “Guêpier Tawa” of Levaillant 1813, pl. 8 (Merops).

SUBSPECIES

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (chrysolaimus)
SCI Name: Merops hirundineus chrysolaimus
chrysolaema / chrysolaemus / chrysolaimus
Gr. χρυσος khrusos gold; λαιμος laimos throat.

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (heuglini)
SCI Name: Merops hirundineus heuglini
heuglini / heuglinii
Martin Theodor von Heuglin (1824-1876) German mining engineer, ornithologist, explorer in the Sudan, Abyssinia, Eritrea and Somaliland 1851-1864, and the Arctic 1870-1871 (subsp. Alcedo semitorquata, subsp. Argya rubiginosa, syn. Batis orientalis, syn. Butastur rufipennis, syn. Centropus monachus fischeri, Cossypha, syn. Cuculus solitarius, subsp. Dendropicos obsoletus, subsp. Larus fuscus, subsp. Merops hirundineus, Neotis, Oenanthe, Ploceus, syn. Pternistis clappertoni, syn. Zosterops senegalensis).

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (furcatus)
SCI Name: Merops hirundineus furcatus
furcatum / furcatus
Med. L. furcatus  forked  < L. furca  two-pronged fork  < ferre  to tend.
● ex “Mouette à queue fourchue” of Néboux, 1840 (Creagrus).
● ex “Icterus cauda bifida” of Brisson 1760, and “Fork-tailed Oriole” of Latham 1782 (?Dicrurus sp.).
● ex “Swallow-tail’d Hawk” of Catesby 1731 (syn. Elanoides forficatus).
● ex “Fork-tail Petrel” of Pennant 1785, and Latham 1785 (Hydrobates).

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (hirundineus)
SCI Name: Merops hirundineus hirundineus
hirundinea / hirundineus
L. hirundineus of swallows  < hirundo  swallow (cf. Med. L. hirundineus  swallow-like, migratory).
● ex “Guêpier à Queue Fourchue” or “Guêpier Tawa” of Levaillant 1813, pl. 8 (Merops).