Is Eriocnemis luciani meridae (Aves: Trochilidae) a diagnosable taxon and does it come from Venezuela, with remarks on the collectors Salomón Briceño and Walther Frederick Henninger

Abstract

Eriocnemis luciani meridae was originally described from a single specimen collected in the late 19th century in western Venezuela. Subsequently a second specimen of E. luciani, also labelled “Venezuela”, has been taken as additional proof for a highly disjunct population of this hummingbird, which otherwise ranges from southwest Colombia to southern Peru (taxonomy-dependent). Eriocnemis l. meridae has been accepted by all of the global checklists of birds, but has been routinely ignored by Venezuelan sources. In an effort to resolve this dichotomy of treatment, we re-examined the specimens’ plumage in comparison with relevant material in two major European bird collections. We found that the characters used to erect E. l. meridae are only doubtfully or weakly expressed in the holotype and appear invisible in the Ohio specimen, but both are clearly referrable to the species E. luciani. Evidence that the second specimen was definitely collected in Venezuela is weak and its overall provenance is unclear. In contrast, an extensive historical investigation of the relevant collectors indicates that the holotype does appear to have been taken in Venezuela, although perhaps not in the precise locality indicated for it. This leaves an unusual situation whereby we consider the case for a separate Venezuelan endemic taxon to be unproven, but there is no incontrovertible reason to exclude the species from the country’s avifauna; according to recent niche modelling data it is best searched for in the Sierra Nevada of Mérida state. In contrast, a second subspecies of E. luciani, E. l. baptistae, described by the same authors as endemic to part of western Ecuador is, according to our reappraisal, clearly diagnosable and is upheld.