The type locality of the South American Tern, Sterna hirundinacea (Aves: Charadriiformes: Sternidae), with designation of a lectotype

J. Carlos, CaioVoisin, Jean-François

The type locality of the South American Tern, Sterna hirundinacea, has long been considered to be the state of Santa Catarina in South Brazil. This conclusion was probably based on two syntypes, from the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris, France, one from Laguna and the other from an unspecified locality. The latter was probably shot on the coast of Rio de Janeiro. A recent molecular study has shown that Brazilian and Patagonian populations of S. hirundinacea are not completely panmictic, though genetic differentiation between them is low. No data from the Falkland Islands and Pacific coast populations have been available for comparison. If future analysis shows that Pacific and/or Falkland/Malvinas populations are genetically isolated from the Brazil-Patagonian ones, the name S. hirundinacea would apply only to birds from the latter populations. Given that the two syntypes were collected at two widely spaced localities, doubts exist as to the precise locality where one syntype was taken, and to clear up uncertainties, a lectotype of S. hirundinacea is herein designated.

1. Brazil
2. seabirds
3. nomenclature
4. taxonomy