XTE J1855-026 is a supergiant X-ray binary

The eclipsing X-ray pulsar XTE J1855-026 (Corbet & Mukai 2002, ApJ 577, 923) has been unambiguously identified by a recent Swift observation (Romano et al., ATel #1875) with the reddened early-type star proposed as candidate counterpart by Verrecchia et al. (ATel #102). High-quality spectra of the counterpart taken in August 2003 with the 4.2-m WHT (La Palma) show it to be a B0 Iaep luminous supergiant.