Subspecies Polytelis anthopeplus anthopeplus (Lear, 1831)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Palaeornis anthopeplus Lear, E. 1831. Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or Parrots: the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured, containing forty-two lithographic plates, drawn from life, and on stone. London : E. Lear 42 pls. [Pl. 8, Pt VIII, published Oct. 1831, publication dated as 1830–1832] [pl. 29] [published without description or locality but in association with a coloured illustration (female) and available under ICZN Art. 12(b)(7); type locality accepted conventionally as 'New South Wales', see Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171–455 [publication dated Jan. 1912, published 31 Jan.] and subsequent revisions, Peters, J.L. 1937. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 3 xiii 311 pp., Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp., but this presumption is not consistent with either Australian exploration at the time or the form of the specimen illustrated in the protologue, see Schodde, R. 1993. Geographic forms of the Regent Parrot, Polytelis anthopeplus (Lear), and their type localities. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 113: 44–47; original material, probably ex Zoological Society of London coll., was not passed to BMNH and is evidently lost, see Salvadori, T. 1891. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Psittaci, or Parrots. London : British Museum Vol. 20 xvii 658 pp. XVIII pls (480); Sharpe, R.B. 1906. Birds. pp. 79–515 in, The History of the Collections contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum. London : British Museum Vol. 2. (514–515); Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.].

  Type data:

   Neotype WAM A7095 ♀, Bolgart, c. 40 km north of Toodyay, south WA (published without locality).

  Subsequent designation references:

  Schodde, R. 1993. Geographic forms of the Regent Parrot, Polytelis anthopeplus (Lear), and their type localities. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 113: 44-47.

  Type locality references:

  Schodde, R. 1993. Geographic forms of the Regent Parrot, Polytelis anthopeplus (Lear), and their type localities. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 113: 44-47 (cf. Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171–455 [publication dated Jan. 1912, published 31 Jan.]; Peters, J.L. 1937. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 3 xiii 311 pp.; Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.).
• Palaeornis melanura Lear, E. 1832. Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or Parrots: the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured, containing forty-two lithographic plates, drawn from life, and on stone. London : E. Lear 42 pls. [Pt XII, published 1832, publication dated as 1830–1832] [pl. 28] [published without description or locality but in association with a coloured illustration (male) and available under ICZN Art. 12(b) (7); type locality accepted conventionally as 'New South Wales', see Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171–455 [publication dated Jan. 1912, published 31 Jan.] and subsequent revisions, and Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp., but this presumption is not consistent with either Australian exploration at the time or the form of the specimen illustrated in the protologue, see Schodde, R. 1993. Geographic forms of the Regent Parrot, Polytelis anthopeplus (Lear), and their type localities. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 113: 44–47; original material, ex B. & J. Leadbeater coll., not passed to BMNH and evidently lost, see Salvadori, T. 1891. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Psittaci, or Parrots. London : British Museum Vol. 20 xvii 658 pp. XVIII pls (480); Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.].

  Type data:

   Neotype WAM A7095 ♀, Bolgart, c. 40 km north of Toodyay, south WA (published without locality).

  Subsequent designation references:

  Schodde, R. 1993. Geographic forms of the Regent Parrot, Polytelis anthopeplus (Lear), and their type localities. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 113: 44-47.

  Type locality references:

  Schodde, R. 1993. Geographic forms of the Regent Parrot, Polytelis anthopeplus (Lear), and their type localities. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 113: 44-47 (cf. Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171–455 [publication dated Jan. 1912, published 31 Jan.]; Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.).
• Polytelis anthopeplus westralis Mathews, G.M. 1915. Additions and corrections to my List of the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 2: 123-133 [Date published 129] [127] [holotype inferred but not specified in protologue; the female illustrated on pl. 296 and described in detail on p. 267 in Mathews, G.M. 1917. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 6 pt 3 pp. 217–296 pls 291–299 [17 Apr. 1917, volume dated as 1916–1917] is evidently one of syntypes, having been collected in Jan. 1912, before the description of this form].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) AMNH 621639 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll.), Broome Hill, WA (as West Australia); AMNH 621640 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll.), Broome Hill, WA (as West Australia); AMNH 621641 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll.), Broome Hill, WA (as West Australia)
  Comment: for identification of syntypes 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.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Schodde, R. 1993. Geographic forms of the Regent Parrot, Polytelis anthopeplus (Lear), and their type localities. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 113: 44-47 [45]

Distribution

States

Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Mallee sand plains and wheat belt, WA, north to Ajana, east to Lake Moore and Kalgoorlie, south-east to region of Balladonia, south to Israelite Bay, Esperance, and Albany, and west to west coast north from Geographe Bay to Greenough-Irwin Rivers, avoiding heavier forests of extreme south-west—erratically reaches Murchison River, Wanjarri, Laverton and Leonora.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

WA: Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Carnarvon (CAR), Coolgardie (COO), Central Ranges (CR), Dampierland (DL), Esperance Plains (ESP), Gascoyne (GAS), Gibson Desert (GD), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), Mallee (MAL), Murchison (MUR), Nullarbor (NUL), Pilbara (PIL), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Warren (WAR), Yalgoo (YAL)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Western Australia: NW coastal, SW coastal, W plateau

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, diurnal, florivore, folivore, frugivorous, granivore, gregarious, low open woodland, low woodland, nomadic, terrestrial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Seasonal breeder, sexually dimorphic, feeds arboreally and on ground on seeds, fruit and blossom, flocks in small to large groups, flies directly with swift even wing beats, nests on bed of wood dust/debris in tree hollows, incubation by female, both sexes rear whitish-downed, dull orange-yellow-billed chicks, wanders regionally to seasonal food sources.

History of changes