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Weaver Wednesday [190] - Discovery [73]: Fire-fronted Bishop

2016-02-03 (696)

Weaver Wednesday (species text)

Fire-fronted Bishop Euplectes diadematus

Fire-fronted Bishop map — Fire-fronted Bishop
distribution, type locality circled

Introduction

The Fire-fronted Bishop was formally described by Anton Reichenow, a German ornithologist and herpetologist. He was curator of the Humboldt Museum in Berlin and described many birds, as well as some frogs and lizards. The Fire-fronted Bishop was collected by Gustav A Fischer, a German African explorer. In 1876 he accompanied Clemens Denhardt's expedition to Zanzibar, where he settled as a physician. Fischer collected some birds in Zanzibar and then undertook a trip along the Kenyan coast where he collected a male Fire-fronted Bishop.

The first illustration of the Fire-fronted Bishop was published in Fischer (1879). The second illustration was published much later, by Delacour (1933), also of a male. The first female was illustrated in Mackworth (1955).

Scientific citation

Euplectes diadematus Fischer & Reichenow 1878 Orn. Centralbl., 3, p.88 Malindi, Kenya.

Meaning of names

diadematus, Latin: diadematus, diademed, adorned with a diadem.

First English name

Fire-fronted Bishop-bird (Shelley 1905).

Alternate names

None.

Collector

Gustav A Fischer.

Date collected

4 Sep 1877.

Locality collected

Malindi, Kenya.

Type specimens

A type specimen is in the Berlin Museum (ZMB_23367) and there are some other syntypes.