Hoopoes (1 Viewer)

Lucia Turčoková, Ľudovít Kocian, Alexander Kürthy & Csaba Balázs, 2012. The response of males belonging to the European subspecies of Hoopoe to the playback of song of their own and foreign subspecies (U. e. marginata). Tichodroma 24.

Abstract:
Populations of the same species occupying different habitats can modify the acoustic parameters of their song to increase the effectiveness of signal transmission. The changed song features may cause situations in which individuals of one population are not able to recognize individuals belonging to the other population. Weaker recognition ability of individuals can play the key role in the establishment of the reproduction barrier between populations of the same species and leads to the separation of the new species. For the study of song divergence and recognition ability we choose the Hoopoe (Upupa epops) subspecies complex, which consists of 10 subspecies occupying a large area from Eurasia to Africa. All subspecies have a very similar acoustic performance except one subspecies from Madagascar (U. e. marginata). We carried out a playback experiment in which we focused on the recognition ability of the European subspecies (U. e. epops) of the Hoopoe. We tested males to two types of playbacks – one was the song of their own subspecies and the other was the song of the Madagascar subspecies. Of 24 experimental male subjects, 20 males responded to the playback of their own subspecies by a song. None of the experimental males responded to the other subspecies song. Our results suggest about the speciation process between the two Hoopoe subspecies.

Madagascar Hoopoe Upupa (epops) marginata is recognised as a distinct species by BirdLife, IOC, eBird/Clements and ABC; but not by HBW or H&M4.

Upupa epops subspecies

IOC lists the following:

U. e. epops - nw Africa and Europe e to sc Russia, nw China and nw India.
U. e. ceylonensis - c and s India, Sri Lanka
U. e. longirostris - ne India to s China, Indochina and n Malay Pen.
U. e. major - Egypt
U. e. senegalensis - Senegal and Gambia to Somalia
U. e. waibeli - Cameroon to nw Kenya and n Uganda

Lynx HBW has these and also adds:
U. e. saturata - sc Russia (e of Yenisei) east to Japan and south to c China and Tibet
U. e. africana - [split by IOC as U. africana]

Is saturata lumped with any other subspecies by IOC (and forgot to expand the distribution of the ssp it is added to), or accepted but just omitted completely in error?

PGP Ericson 1997 states that saturata is confirmed as a subspecies although it does intergrade in the Ob-Yenesy watershed.
http://www.nrm.se/download/18.382ec743113b0c5a2a180003662/1367705195191/Ericson+BOC+1997+Upupa.pdf .
http://www.nrm.se/forskningochsamli...ar/icketattingar/upupidae/nrm566791.3460.html .

Nutcracker said:

Is saturata lumped with any other subspecies by IOC (and forgot to expand the distribution of the ssp it is added to), or accepted but just omitted completely in error?

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IOC used H&M as its starting point for subspecific taxonomy.

H&M4...

epops Linnaeus, 1758
Includes saturata; see Stepanyan (1990).

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Also synonymised with epops by Koblik et al 2006. So not generally recognised in Russia despite being a local race – type locality Kyakhta, Buryatiya.

(Re "east to Japan": it's only a scarce spring overshoot to Japan, although it has bred in Honshu.)

Ditto in H&M3.

Stepanyan didn't provide the start of an explanation, however. He just wrote:

Изменчивость проявляется в степени насыщенности и варьировании оттенков оперения, в степени развития светлого рисунка на маховых и рулевых и в общих размерах. 8 подвидов.

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(= Variability is shown in the degree of saturation and varying shades of plumage, in the degree of development of the light pattern on the flight and tail feathers, and in overall dimensions. 8 subspecies.)
...And then he went on recognising Upupa epops epops as the only podvid in the SSSR, with saturata Lönnberg 1909 cited among its synonyms.

Stepanyan's treatment might be understood as a blanket acceptation of the treatment recognised (also without any real explanation) in Dement'ev & Gladkov 1951. If so, the "8 подвидов" he alluded to would have been different from those accepted in H&M in other respects:

1 — U. е. epops, 2 — U. е. major, 3 — U. е. senegalensis, 4 — U. е. africana, 5 — U. е. marginata, 6 — U. е. orientalis, 7 — U. е. ceylonensis. 8 — U. е. longirostris

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(waibeli lumped into senegalensis [with a comment saying that this is what most authors do], orientalis recognised in India, separating epops geographically from ceylonensis.)

Thanks! Looks like the IOC range list for U. e. epops needs clarification then.

Erjia Wang, Rien E. Van Wijk, Markus Santhosh Braun, Michael Wink. Gene flow and genetic drift contribute to high genetic diversity with low phylogeographical structure in European Hoopoes (Upupa epops). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 19 May 2017.

[abstract]

Peter Kovalik said:

Erjia Wang, Rien E. Van Wijk, Markus Santhosh Braun, Michael Wink. Gene flow and genetic drift contribute to high genetic diversity with low phylogeographical structure in European Hoopoes (Upupa epops). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 19 May 2017.

[abstract]

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pdf here

Michael Wink, Wang, E., van Wijk, R.: Genetics show that Hoopoes have overcome risk of extinction by exchange of populations throughout Europe. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (2017).

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