Melidectes Belfordi Bird

English Name:  Belford's Melidectes
Latin Name:  Melidectes belfordi
Protonym:  Melirrhophetes belfordi AnnualRep.Brit.NewGuinea(1888-1889) App.G p.60
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Meliphagidae / Melidectes
Taxonomy Code:  belmel1
Type Locality:  Mt. Knutsford, southeastern New Guinea.
Author:  De Vis
Publish Year:  1890
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MELIDECTES
(Meliphagidae; Ϯ Ornate Honeyeater M. torquatus) Gr. μελι meli,  μελιτος melitos  honey; δηκτης dēktēs  biter  < δηκω dēkō  to bite; "11. MELIDECTES TORQUATUS, gen. et sp. n.  (Pl. LV.)  Melidectes gen. nov.† ex familia Meliphagidarum: rostro elongato, caput æquante, tenuiusculo, parum arcuato; naribus linearibus, in sulco longitudinali positis: spatio altero postoculari lato et altero postrictali angusto omnino nudis; cauda longa, paulum rotundata; tarsis modicis: alis acutis, modice elongatis.   ...  MELIDECTES TORQUATUS, sp. n.  ...  This is a conspicuous new Meliphagine form, not very far from Ptilotis, but distinguishable by the bareness of the sides of the face and bare stripe behind the rictus. These are separated by a scanty line of feathers extending beneath the eye.   ...   †  Mελι, mel, et δηκτης, mordicator." (P. Sclater 1874); "Melidectes Sclater, 1873 [= 1874], Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 694. Type, by monotypy, Melidectes torquatus Sclater." (Salomonsen in Peters 1967, XII, 415).
Synon. Melionyx, Melirrhophetes.

belfordi
George Belford (d. 1906) son of a Samoan chieftain, collector for Sir William McGregor (Melidectes).

SUBSPECIES

Belford's Melidectes (brassi)
Latin Name: Melidectes belfordi brassi
brassi
Leonard John Brass (1900-1971) Australian botanist, plant collector in New Guinea 1925-1926, 1933-1939, 1953-1959, the Solomon Islands 1932, and tropical Australia 1948 (subsp. Melidectes belfordi, Philemon).

Belford's Melidectes (joiceyi)
Latin Name: Melidectes belfordi joiceyi
joiceyi
James John Joicey (1871-1932) British botanist, lepidopterist, sponsor of collecting expeditions (Geokichla, subsp. Melidectes belfordi).

Belford's Melidectes (kinneari)
Latin Name: Melidectes belfordi kinneari
kinneari
Sir Norman Boyd Kinnear (1882-1957) British ornithologist at BMNH, Curator of Bombay Natural History Mus. 1907 (syn. Actinodura ramsayi yunnanensis, syn. Ammomanes cinctura arenicolor, subsp. Chloropsis moluccensis, subsp. Cinnyris hellmayri, subsp. Dendrocitta vagabunda, syn. Eremalauda dunni eremodites, subsp. Melidectes belfordi, subsp. Mixornis gularis, syn. Nannus troglodytes nipalensis, subsp. Sasia ochracea, subsp. Sitta carolinensis, Spelaeornis, subsp. Turnix maculosus).

Belford's Melidectes (belfordi)
Latin Name: Melidectes belfordi belfordi
belfordi
George Belford (d. 1906) son of a Samoan chieftain, collector for Sir William McGregor (Melidectes).

Belford's Melidectes (schraderensis)
Latin Name: Melidectes belfordi schraderensis
schraderensis
Schrader Mts., New Guinea.