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Zosteropidae (1 Viewer)

(revised)
Kirwan (2007) argues that the white-breasted subspecies of Abyssinian White-eye ((Z. abyssinicus) are closely related. These include socotranus, arabs, and omoensis. Based on Cox et al. (2014), who included socotranus, and the yellow-breasted flavilateralis and jubaensis, the Abyssinian White-eye is two species: the white-breasted Abyssinian White-eye and the yellow-breasted Kenya White-eye (Z. flavilateralis) including jubaensis. These were already recognized on the TiF list, but the subspecies allocation was unclear. I've split Kivu White-eye (Z. reichenowi) from African Yellow White-eye (Zosterops senegalensis) and changed the English name of Zosterops stierlingi to Southern Yellow White-eye to reflect hypothesized species limits, which rather speculatively include the senegalensis races kasaicus, heinrichi, quanzae, anderssoni, and tongensis. This means that the African Yellow White-eye, Zosterops senegalensis, is assumed to include demeryi, gerhardi, toroensis, stuhlmanni. Cox et al. found that jacksoni groups with senegalensis. Finally, The Montane White-eye, Zosterops poliogastrus is assumed to include kaffensis and kulalensis (although I have doubts about the latter). I take no position on eurycricotus.

This has been revised as comments on BirdForum brought Kirwan (2007) to my attention.
 
eg, a major attraction for birders in SE Arizona: Wikipedia.

Thanks, Richard. I'll probably get used to the term, which at the moment strikes me as rather twee!

Presumably Cox et al 2014 do refer to at least some of these - Cal Madow, Cameroonian Highlands forests, Ethiopian Highlands, Highlands of southern Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Rwenzori Mountains - in the body of the paper in relation to Zosterops taxa distributions. I had been a bit parochial in my consideration of senegalensis and socotranus on their own!
MJB
 
Thanks, Richard. I'll probably get used to the term, which at the moment strikes me as rather twee!
I like the term (and have known it for ages:t:). The Cairngorms with their Dotterels and Ptarmigans are a good example of a sky island too.
 
Oliveros et al

Oliveros, Andersen & Moyle. Disentangling phylogenetic relationships in an explosive bird radiation. Evolution 2014. (p217)
Rapid evolutionary radiations allow tremendous insights into speciation and biogeographic history. However, a major challenge in studies of these brief bursts of diversification has been poor resolution of species’ phylogenetic relationships owing to short internodes among ancestral lineages, incomplete lineage sorting, long-branch attraction, and homoplasy. As a consequence, too few robust phylogenetic hypotheses are available to document such radiations. This study aims to resolve relationships within a very rapid and diverse radiation using both simulated and empirical data to illuminate underlying processes of lineage splitting and dispersal.

The passerine family of white-eyes (Zosteropidae) presents an ideal system for investigating one of the most striking evolutionary radiations known among vertebrates. The distribution of this group of 120 species spans a vast area in the Old World, from the eastern Atlantic to the Western Pacific. A vast majority of this lineage is estimated to have begun diversifying only in the early Pleistocene, resulting in the highest speciation rate yet documented among land vertebrates. The relatively recent diversification of this clade minimizes problems of long-branch attraction and homoplasy confounding phylogenetic inference.

Hence, this young and species-rich group provides an excellent system in which to examine macro-evolutionary and biogeographic patterns in rapid radiations, lines of research that depend on a robust estimate of phylogenetic relationships. Data from three mitochondrial genes and two nuclear introns yield a poorly-resolved phylogeny, but simulations suggest that increasing the number of loci to ~100 may improve resolution considerably. As predicted, DNA sequence data from hundreds of ultraconserved elements provide a much better resolved estimate of phylogenetic relationships in this rapid radiation.

Resolution of phylogenetic relationships within Zosteropidae is vital to opening novel research avenues in historical biogeography and population genetics across several archipelagos and understanding the process of speciation in a species-rich but morphologically conserved group. More broadly, this study provides methodological insights into paths toward resolving relationships in other rapid evolutionary radiations across the tree
of life.
[With thanks to Nick Sly.]​
 
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Cox, SC. 2013. Molecular Systematics and Diversification of African Zosteropidae (Aves: Passeriformes). Doctoral thesis, UCL (University College London).

PDF
 
TiF Update June 9

I've made yet another try at organizing the Zosteropidae. This time the changes are prompted by Cox (2013) and Cox et al. (2014). The changes include 4 splits: The Socotra White-eye, Zosterops socotranus (Socotra only) is split from Abyssinian White-eye, Zosterops abyssinicus. The Kilimanjaro White-eye, Zosterops eurycricotus, is split from Montane White-eye, Zosterops poliogastrus. Aldabra White-eye, Zosterops aldabrensis, is split from Kirk's White-eye, Zosterops kirki. Finally, Moheli White-eye, Zosterops comorensis, is split from Mayotte White-eye, Zosterops mayottensis. The last two have been split in two steps from Malagasy White-eye, Zosterops maderaspatanus.
 
Apropos of nice-sounding names and zosterops....I always wished that they'd all been called "silvereyes" rather than "white-eyes" as it rolls off the tongue so much better...
Cas
 
I wonder that Zosterops semiflava (the extinct Marianne White-eye) is still not accepted as full species by most authorities
 
Marianne White-eye

I wonder that Zosterops semiflava (the extinct Marianne White-eye) is still not accepted as full species by most authorities
Well, it's recognised as a full species (Zosterops semiflavus) by HBW, H&M4, IOC and eBird/Clements, although still lumped with Z mayottensis by BirdLife.

H&M4, IOC and eBird/Clements cite Warren et al 2006 (Immigration, species radiation and extinction in a highly diverse songbird lineage: white-eyes on Indian Ocean islands) in support.
 
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E. Newton described Z. semiflavus as semiflava, and Z modestus as modesta.
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/34616#page/384/mode/1up .
Zoonomen states;
The ICZN initially in 1985 [Art 30(a)(ii)] and reaffirmed in 2000 [Art. 30.1.4.3] treats gender in this manner:
"A compound genus-group name ending in -ops is to be treated as masculine, regardless of its derivation or of its treatment by its author."
Zosterops is a compound formed from Gr. zoster - belt or girdle, and ops - the eye.
There is Z. atricapilla, and Z. citrinella?
 
Both listed as invariable names in H&M4.
atricapilla = "blackhead" in Latin; "black-headed" would need an adjectival suffix at the end of the word, viz. atricapillata.

The citrinella case might more easily be disputed, I think. citrinellus, -a, -um is used in modern Latin as an adjective, and presumably (almost) always intended to be adjectival in zoological names. But it is not a classical, nor medieval Latin word, the Code excludes modern Latin from its definition of "Latin", and if it is not "Latin" (sensu ICZN), it is to be treated as invariable. In the case of the Citrine Finch at least, the word has been interpreted as the Italian name of the bird (ie., a noun). However, citrus exists as a noun in classical Latin, -inus, -a, -um is a recognised classical Latin adjectival suffix, citrinus exists an adjective in medieval Latin, and -ellus, -a, -um is a recognised classical Latin diminutive suffix, that is sometimes (albeit admittedly not that frequently) added to adjectives, without affecting their adjectival nature (cf. niger => nigellus, ruber => rubellus, macer => macellus, modicus => modicellus, miser => misellus, novus => novellus, pulcher => pulchellus, rusticus => rusticellus -- the resulting word meaning "somewhat", "rather", or "a little" what the adjective without the suffix means [cf. "-ish" in English]). Thus, although the adjective does not exist as such in Latin dictionaries/grammars, all what is needed to form it does.
 
atricapilla = "blackhead" in Latin; "black-headed" would need an adjectival suffix at the end of the word, viz. atricapillata.

The citrinella case might more easily be disputed, I think. citrinellus, -a, -um is used in modern Latin as an adjective, and presumably (almost) always intended to be adjectival in zoological names. But it is not a classical, nor medieval Latin word, the Code excludes modern Latin from its definition of "Latin", and if it is not "Latin" (sensu ICZN), it is to be treated as invariable. In the case of the Citrine Finch at least, the word has been interpreted as the Italian name of the bird (ie., a noun). However, citrus exists as a noun in classical Latin, -inus, -a, -um is a recognised classical Latin adjectival suffix, citrinus exists an adjective in medieval Latin, and -ellus, -a, -um is a recognised classical Latin diminutive suffix, that is sometimes (albeit admittedly not that frequently) added to adjectives, without affecting their adjectival nature (cf. niger => nigellus, ruber => rubellus, macer => macellus, modicus => modicellus, miser => misellus, novus => novellus, pulcher => pulchellus, rusticus => rusticellus -- the resulting word meaning "somewhat", "rather", or "a little" what the adjective without the suffix means [cf. "-ish" in English]). Thus, although the adjective does not exist as such in Latin dictionaries/grammars, all what is needed to form it does.

Errrrmm.....Poecile atricapillus? Should be changed? Several other taxa also "atricapillus"
 
Errrrmm.....Poecile atricapillus? Should be changed? Several other taxa also "atricapillus"
No, Linnaeus [here] wrote this name "atricapillus", and this has no more adjectival suffix than "atricapilla". So the word is retained as it was originally proposed, whatever the gender of Poecile.
 
In review
Husemann M., Sturm S., Meimberg, H., Habel J.C. (submitted) The mitochondrial genomes of three species of the genus Zosterops with evaluation of the information content of genes.
 

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