Johan Ingels et al. 63 Bull. B.O.C. 2012 132(1) A replacement name for Charadrius leschenaultii crassirostris (Severzov, 1873), a subspecies of Greater Sand Plover by Caio J. Carlos, C. S. (Kees) Roselaar & Jean-François Voisin Received 21 October 2011 Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii has a large breeding distribution extending from Turkey east to Central Asia. Three subspecies are currently recognised: C. l. leschenaultii Lesson, 1826, which breeds in the northern Gobi Desert in Mongolia and in north-west China, and winters in Australasia, South-East Asia and the Indian subcontinent; C. l. columbinus Wagler, 1829, which breeds in the Middle East, southern Afghanistan and Azerbaijan, and winters in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the south-east Mediterranean regions; and C. l. crassirostris (Severzov, 1873), which breeds in Turkmenistan to southern Kazakhstan, and winters on coasts of eastern and south-east Africa (C. S. Roselaar in Cramp & Simmons 1983, Marchant & Higgins 1993, Piersma & Wiersma 1996, Hirschfeld et al. 2000). Hereafter, the last-named is referred to as the Transcaspian Greater Sand Plover. Severzov (1873: 146) originally described the Transcaspian Greater Sand Plover as a species named Eudromias crassirostris. He listed three type specimens, said by him to have been sent to the Russian Academy of Science in St. Petersburg: the irst was collected at Perovsk fort (modern-day Kyzylorda in Kazakhstan; c.44°51’N, 65°30’E) on 30 June 1858, the second was taken at Lake Chatir-Kul at c.3,500 m (modern-day Chatyrkel in southcentral Kyrgyzstan; c.40°37’N, 75°17’E) on 26 July 1867, and the third on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, in Krasnovodsk Bay near Pel’tsamom in western Turkmenistan, in August 1867. We were unable to locate Pel’tsamom, but the shape of Krasnovodsk Bay varies © 2012 The Authors; Journal compilation © 2012 British Ornithologists’ Club Caio J. Carlos et al. 64 Bull. B.O.C. 2012 132(1) greatly due to water-level luctuations and the sites of many former villages are either inundated or are deserted due to drought. All of the above-mentioned dates are presumably Julian calendar dates, used by Russia until the early 20th century, and thus 13 days should be added to identify the Gregorian date. Eudromias crassirostris, when included in the genus Charadrius, as it is by most authors (e.g. Bock 1958, C. S. Roselaar in Cramp & Simmons 1983, Marchant & Higgins 1993, Piersma & Wiersma 1996), becomes a junior homonym of Charadrius crassirostris Spix, 1825, which is now treated as a subspecies of Wilson’s Plover C. wilsonia of northern and north-east Brazil (Carlos & Voisin 2011). Therefore, according to Arts. 23.1 and 60.3 of the International code of zoological nomenclature (ICZN 1999) E. crassirostris Severzov must either be replaced by a pre-existing name or by proposing a new one. Of all taxa related to Greater Sand Plover, both valid and synonyms, only E. crassirostris was partially based on breeding birds, the others being described from migrants / wintering individuals (Hirschfeld et al. 2000). At least two localities from which the Transcaspian Great Sand Plover was described, Perovsk fort and ‘east shore of the Caspian’, lie within its breeding range, while the other is not known to possess breeding Greater Sand Plovers. However, the bird from Lake Chatir-Kul probably belongs to the Transcaspian breeding population, because nominate leschenaultii and columbinus are unlikely to occur there (Hirschfeld et al. 2000). A review of the literature (e.g., Sharpe 1896, Hartert 1920, Peters 1934, Hirschfeld et al. 2000) indicated that Severzov’s (1873) name has no available junior synonym, because it has been a stable taxon since its original description. In accordance with the ICZN (1999) we therefore propose for it: Charadrius leschenaultii scythicus nom. nov. Etymology.—The adjective scythicus (feminine scythica, neuter scythicum) commemorates the Scyths, an ancient horse-riding nomadic people who lived, from the 8th century BC to the 2nd century AD, in a vast area, known at the time as Scythia, which covers present-day Central Asia, Russia and Ukraine. This region also includes all of this plover’s breeding range. Acknowledgements CJC is supported by the Cordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Brasília, Brazil. The typescript beneited from the input of Edward Dickinson, Richard Schodde, Frank D. Steinheimer and the editorial advice of Guy Kirwan. References: Bock, W. 1958. A generic review of the plovers (Charadriinae, Aves). Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 118: 25–97. Carlos, C. J. & Voisin, J.-F. 2011. Charadrius wilsonia brasiliensis Grantsau & Lima, 2008, is a junior synonym of Charadrius crassirostris Spix, 1825. Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 131: 165–170. Cramp, S. & Simmons, K. E. L. (eds.) 1983. The birds of the Western Palearctic, vol. 3. Oxford Univ. Press. Hartert, E. 1920. Die Vögel der päalarktischen Fauna, Bd. 2. Friedländer & Sohn, Berlin. Hirschfeld, E., Roselaar, C. S. & Shirihai, H. 2000. Identiication, taxonomy and distribution of Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers. Brit. Birds 93: 162–189. International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). 1999. International code of zoological nomenclature. Fourth edn. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London. Marchant, S. & Higgins, P. J. (eds.) 1993. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, vol. 2. Oxford Univ. Press, Melbourne. Peters, J. L. 1934. Check-list of birds of the world, vol. 2. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA. Piersma, T. & Wiersma, P. 1996. Family Charadriidae (plovers). Pp. 384–442 in del Hoyo, J., Elliot, A. & Sargatal, J. (eds.) Handbook of the birds of the world, vol. 3. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Severzov, N. A. 1873. Vertikal’noe i gorizontal’noe raspedelenie Turkestanskikh’ Zhivotnykh’. Izvestia imperatorskago obshchestva lyubitelei estestvozananiya, antropologii i etnograii, vol. 8(2). Moscow. Sharpe, R. B. 1896. Catalogue of birds in the British Museum, vol. 24. Trustees of the Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), London. © 2012 The Authors; Journal compilation © 2012 British Ornithologists’ Club Caio J. Carlos et al. 65 Bull. B.O.C. 2012 132(1) Addresses: Caio J. Carlos, Laboratório de Sistemática e Ecologia de Aves e Mamíferos Marinhos & Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Agronomia, 91501–970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil, e-mail: macronectes1@ yahoo.co.uk. C. S. (Kees) Roselaar, National Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR. Leiden, the Netherlands, e-mail: Kees.roselaar@ncbnaturalis.nl. Jean-François Voisin, Laboratoire d’Entomologie, C.P. 50, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 57 rue Cuvier, F-75005 Paris, France, e-mail: jfvoisin@mnhn.fr © 2012 The Authors; Journal compilation © 2012 British Ornithologists’ Club