Subspecies Cacomantis (Cacomantis) variolosus dumetorum (Gould, 1845)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Cuculus dumetorum Gould, J. 1845. In Proceedings of meeting of Zoological Society of London, March 25, 1845. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1845: 18-20 [published Apr.] [19] [no type specified in original description—but Gould's account of this form (as synonym) 20 months later in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 4 104 pls pp. (text to pl. 87, Pt 25, Dec. 1846), indicates that Stone's selection of a type in ANSP bearing the locality 'Port Essington' is probably valid and effects lectotypification under ICZN Art. 74(a), see Stone, W. in Stone, W. & Mathews, G.M. 1913. A list of the species of Australian birds described by John Gould, with the location of the type-specimens. Austral Avian Records 1: 129–180; cf. Meyer de Schauensee, R. 1957. On some avian types, principally Gould's, in the collection of the Academy. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 109: 123–246; the prior name tymbonomus S. Müller, 1843 (type locality: Timor), has been applied in error to this form by Junge, G.C.A. 1937. The birds of south New Guinea Part 1 Non Passeres. Nova Guinea ns 1: 125–188; Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp.; White, C.M.N. 1977. Notes on some non-passerine birds of Wallacea. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 97: 99–103; White, C.M.N. & Bruce, M.D. 1986. The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). An annotated check-list. B.O.U. Check-list No. 7. London : British Ornithologists' Union 524 pp. [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Mathews, G.M. & Iredale, T. 1913. Notes on Billberg's Synopsis Faunae Scandinaviae. Austral Avian Records 2: 33–48]; cf. Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp. who confuses dumetorum Gould, 1845 with it nomenclaturally—the holotype of tymbonomus S. Müller, 1843, however, is referable to an endemic long-tailed subspecies on Timor, as appreciated by Mayr, E. 1944. The birds of Timor and Sumba. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 83: 123–194].

  Type data:

   Lectotype ANSP 20028 ♂ adult (Verreaux cat. no. 1616), Port Essington, NT (as Port Essington, Australia).
  Paralectotype(s) whereabouts unknown.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Stone, W. in Stone, W. & Mathews, G.M. 1913. A list of the species of Australian birds described by John Gould, with the location of the type-specimens. Austral Avian Records 1: 129-180 [Date published 28 Feb 1913].
• Cacomantis lineatus Dodd, A.P. 1913. Description of a new cuckoo. The Emu 12: 165-166 [165] [although Greenway records that the holotype was taken on an unknown date by an unknown collector, the protologue makes it clear that it was collected by A.P. Dodd in the first week of Sept., 1912; for taxonomic identity of holotype, see Hartert, E. 1925. Review of the genus Cacomantis Müll. Novitates Zoologicae 32: 164–174; cf. Mathews, G.M. 1918. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 7 pt 4 pp. 321–384 pls 352–362 [19 Dec. 1918]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 626048 imm. (ex G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Nelson, within 12 miles of Cairns, QLD
  Comment: for identification of holotype and type locality, see Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1–306.
• Cacomantis pyrrophanus vidgeni Mathews, G.M. 1918. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 7 pt 4 pp. 321-384 pls 352-362. [Date published 19 Dec. 1918] [326] [as Cacomantis pyrrhophanus vidgeni; holotype collected on 17 Apr. 1912, on which date the collector, W.R. MacLennan, was at Lockerbie, see MacGillivray, W. 1914. Notes on some North Queensland Birds. Emu 13: 132–186].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 626037 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Lockerbie, Cape York Peninsula, QLD (as Cape York)
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1–306.

  Type locality references:

  Mason, I.J. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [233] (from itinery of collector, see MacGillivray, W. 1914. Notes on some North Queensland Birds. Emu 13: 132–186).

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Mason, I.J. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [233] (based on Hartert, E. 1925. Review of the genus Cacomantis Müll. Novitates Zoologicae 32: 164–174 [166–170])

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and subcoastal N Australia, west to King Sound, Kimberley Division—east to Cape York Peninsula and north-east coastal QLD—and south inland to Fitzroy, upper Ord and Negri River drainages, WA, the upper Victoria River drainage, Mataranka, McArthur River and gulf drainage, NT, and the lower Nicholson, Leichhardt and Norman Rivers, Gregory-Newcastle Range, and upper Burdekin River drainage, QLD, probably intergrades locally with C. v. variolosus (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827)—also off-shore islands: Buccaneer and Bonaparte Archipelagos, WA, Melville-Bathurst Ils, Groote Eylandt, and Sir Edward Pellew group, NT, and Wellesley Ils and islands in south Torres Strait, QLD.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal, Torres Strait Islands
  • Western Australia: N coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, closed forest, diurnal, nomadic, open forest, sedentary, tall forest, territorial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, solitary or in dispersed sedentary pairs, feeds by perch-and-pounce sallying on caterpillars and insects, flies in graceful undulations, brood parasite parasitizing honeyeaters, mainly Ramsayornis fasciatus (Gould, 1843) and R. modestus (G.R. Gray, 1858) whose eggs it mimics in east, also Melithreptus albogularis Gould, 1848, Conopophila rufogularis (Gould, 1843), and species of Rhipidura Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 and Myiagra Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 whose eggs it mimics in west.

General References

Brooker, M.G. & Brooker, L.C. 1989. Cuckoo hosts in Australia. Australian Zoological Reviews 2: 1-67 (nidification)

History of changes