288 NOVITATES ZOOLOQICAE XXIII. 1916. 



13 species of Geometridae are desert forms, as are the Amata and the Eremocossus. 

 Finally, of the Fyralidae, Eromena ocellea is almost world-wide, while Pristarthria 

 brephiella, Nomophila noctuella, and Noctuelia desertalis are palaearctic, the 

 remaining 9 being purely desert species. 



WHAT IS THE CORRECT NAME OE THE ARABIAN 



SEA TERN? 



By ERNST HARTERT. 



ry^HE tenth species of the genus Sterna in the Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 69 

 -L is called Sterna albigena, and on p. xiii Sterna albigena Licht. Neither the 

 name of the species nor that of the author can be maintained. The species was 

 called Sterna albigena by Hemprich and Ehrenberg on the stands in the Berlin 

 Museum. The first time it appeared in print was in 1844, when Boie, in the Isis, 

 1844, p. 179, called it Hydrocecropis albigena, and stated that it occurred in the 

 " Mare rubrum." Unfortunately no description was given ; but Lichtenstein, 

 Nomencl. Av. Mus. Berolin. p. 98, 1854, giving Arabia and Nubia as its home, did 

 not publish a description either. It is therefore inconceivable that Lichtenstein 

 was chosen as the author of the name albigena and not Boie, if nomina nuda were 

 adopted. That names without any "indication, definition, or description," so-called 

 nomina nuda, cannot be adopted, is, however, an undisputed rule and basis of 

 nomenclature, and we must therefore look for the first indication. It is true that 

 the first verbal diagnosis is that of Heuglin, in Petermann's Geogr. Mittheilungen, 

 1860, p. 339, and Heuglin there described undoubtedly the Tern under consideration. 

 Unfortunately, however, a figure was published before 1860 (about 1848) by 

 Reichenbach, on pi. xi of the Snppl. to the Vollst. Naturg. der Schwimmvögel, 

 Longipennes pi. xxi, forming fig. 816. 



Nearly all ornithologists, notably Finsch & Hartlaub, and Heuglin, refused to 

 accept this figure for our bird, but they did not draw from their action the necessary 

 consequence, viz., to refuse the name. Saunders, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1876, 

 said : "I cannot understand how Finsch and Hartlaub tail to identify Reicheubach's 

 figure in the Schwimmvögel with this species ; for his illustration, though coarse, is 

 decidedly far more recognisable than theirs in the Vög. Ost-A/rika's." Saunders' 

 statement is, however, not in accordance with facts. Reichenbach figured a bird 

 in the " Mus. Goetz." with huge black feet (the toes as long as the beak !), 

 apparently white underside, and of the size of Sterna bergii, i.e. 199 in. in length, 

 a point which must have escaped Howard Saunders. It is impossible to identify 

 this figure with what is now called S. albigena, and the latter must therefore have 

 a new name. I consequently call it 



Sterna repressa nom. now 



This name is meant as a new term for the S. albigena of Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 

 xxv, p. 69, of Reichenow and other recent authors, the type specimen being a skin 

 in the Tring Museum collected near Fao, Persian Gulf, by Mr. W. D. (Humming. 



