Systematics

Totanus acuminatus Horsfield, 1821, Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 13:192.—Java.

The holotype, collected by Thomas Horsfield and originally in the collection of the Honourable East India Company Museum, is now at the Natural History Museum, Tring (NHMUK 1880.1.1.4749) (31 Warren, R. L. M. (1966). Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume 1. Non-Passerines. British Museum (Natural History), London, UK. Close ). In the original description, Horsfield stated that most of the birds from Java then in the East India Company’s museum were collected between 1811 and 1817, during his residency on the island, and we can assume that the type of this species was taken during this period.

Synonyms:

Limnocinclus acuminatus rufescens Mathews, 1916, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 36:82.—North-West Australia. New name for the (immature) bird figured and described in Mathews, 1913, The Birds of Australia, volume 3, pp. 256 and 258, plate 161. Represented by multiple syntypes, all held at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, as follows: AMNH 742018, a female, collected at Parry’s Creek, which flows into Cambridge Gulf, northwestern Australia, on 26 September 1908, by John P. Rogers (probably intended as Mathews’ “type,” for a label attached to the specimen indicates that it is the specimen depicted in plate 161), but three males and eight females (AMNH 742011–742022) were taken at the same locality by the same collector, in January, March, September, October, and December, 1908‒1909 (32 Greenway, J. C. (1978). Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Part 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161(1):1‒305. Close ).
Limnocinclus acuminatus juva Mathews, 1930, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 50:42.—“New name for L. a. rufescens Mathews, 1916, nec Middendorff, 1851, Reise in den äussersten Norden und Osten Sibiriens, Band 2, pt. 2, p. 221.” Type material as for rufescens.

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata) was formerly placed in the genus Erolia Vieillot, 1816 (e.g., 33 Peters, J. L. (1934). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 2. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, USA. Close ); it was also regularly included in Limnocinclus Gould, 1865, in the older literature (see above), but placement in Calidris, along with all close relatives, is now well established (34 Banks, R. C. (2012). Classification and nomenclature of the sandpipers (Aves: Arenariinae). Zootaxa 3513(1):86–88. Close , 2 Gibson, R., and A. Baker (2012). Multiple Gene Sequences Resolve Phylogenetic Relationships in the Shorebird Suborder Scolopaci (Aves: Charadriiformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 64(1):66–72. Close ). The form (“Cooper’s Sandpiper”) described as Tringa cooperi Baird, 1858, Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Volume 9, p. 716, is probably a hybrid between the Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) and the present species; Christidis et al. (35 Christidis, L., K. Davies, M. Westerman, P. D. Christian, and R. Schodde (1996). Molecular assessment of the taxonomic status of Cox’s Sandpiper. Condor 98(3):459‒463. Close ) established a hybrid origin for the much more recently described, and in some respects similar, “Cox’s Sandpiper”, based on two specimens from South Australia (36 Parker, S. A. (1982). A new sandpiper of the genus Calidris. S. Aust. Nat. 56:63. Close ). The specimen of “Cooper’s Sandpiper”, an adult male, was collected at “Raynor South” [= Hempstead], Nassau County, Long Island, New York, USA, on 24 May 1833, and was named for William Cooper; it is held at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (USNM 5989) (37 Deignan, H. G. (1961). Type specimens of birds in the United States National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 221:1–718. Close ).

None reported.

The multi-gene (one nuclear and four mitochondrial) study of Gibson and Baker (2 Gibson, R., and A. Baker (2012). Multiple Gene Sequences Resolve Phylogenetic Relationships in the Shorebird Suborder Scolopaci (Aves: Charadriiformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 64(1):66–72. Close ) revealed this species to be sister to the Broad-billed Sandpiper (Calidris falcinellus), nestled in the core of the genus Calidris, and rather far removed from the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper’s one-time supposed closest relative, the Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) (based on their similar external morphology). The phylogeny of Gibson and Baker led to the widespread abandonment of small genera such as Limicola (Broad-billed Sandpiper) and Tryngites Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Calidris subruficollis), and the adoption of the linear sequence for the Scolopacini used herein (34 Banks, R. C. (2012). Classification and nomenclature of the sandpipers (Aves: Arenariinae). Zootaxa 3513(1):86–88. Close , 38 Chesser, R. T., R. C. Banks, F. K. Barker, C. Cicero, J. L. Dunn, A. W. Kratter, I. J. Lovette, P. C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen Jr., J. D. Rising, D. F. Stotz, and K. Winker (2013). Fifty-fourth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 130(3):558–571. Close ).

Sometimes referred to as the Siberian Pectoral Sandpiper (e.g., 39 Sibley, C. G., and B. L. Monroe (1990). Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, USA. Close ), given the relative similarities in appearance between this species and the Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos).

No information.