• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Southern African white-eyes (1 Viewer)

Daniel Philippe

Daniel Philippe

Well-known member
Oatley, G. et al., 2011. The use of subspecies in the systematics of southern African white-eyes: historical entities or eco-geographic variants. J. Zool. in press

Abstract
The recognition of objectively diagnosable and evolutionarily significant terminal taxa, that is, evolutionarily significant units (ESU), is essential for the generation of defensible taxic hypotheses necessary for all forms of evolutionary and comparative biology and for effective guiding of biodiversity conservation. However, there has been a long and on-going, sometimes heated debate, on the merits of the subspecies category in this endeavour. To determine possible ESU present in southern African white-eyes, Zosterops spp., we used uni- and multivariate statistical approches to re-investigate the morphological characteristics (morphometric and plumage coloration) used in past taxonomic studies to propose nine putative southern African Zosterops ESU, described at the time as subspecies. Four ESU emerged from these analyses. Geographical, discriminatory, multifaceted analyses suggest that these four taxa, Z. senegalensis, Z. virens, Z. capensis and Z. pallidus warrant species status.
 
Oatley et al, 2011:
The combined percentage colour and morphometric analysis support the recognition of four southern African Zosterops ESU: the African yellow white-eye Z. senegalensis; the green white-eye Z. virens (Z. v. virens and Z. v. caniviridis); the Cape white-eye Z. capensis (Z. v. atmorii and Z. v. capensis) and the Orange River white-eye Z. pallidus (Z. vaalensis, Z. p. sundevalli, Z. p. deserticola and Z. p. haigamchabensis). Z. vaalensis is considered to be a hybridbetween Z. virens and Z. pallidus.

and Clancey, 1967:
The four major groupings into which the Zosterops forms of southern African can be arranged have for long been treated by conservative systematists as constituting four discrete species (Z. capensis, Z. pallidus, Z. virens and Z. senegalensis).

In a major study, published in 1957, Moreau arrived at the tentative conclusion that in zoo-geographical South Africa Z. cupensis and Z. wirens are clearly conspecific, Z. pallidus is a doubtful monotypic species, and Z. senegalais is a polytypic species of wide continental range, specifically segregated from the foregoing on the basis of a wingltail ratio character, and of juxtaposition without evidence of interbreeding.

A new study of the complex problem of Zosterops relationships in South Africa based on a critical study of over 900 specimens examined in the Durban Museum, suggests that only two species (Z. pallidus and Z. senegahsis), very closely related and part of the same superspecies, are actually involved.
 
Last edited:
This is why I don't like ESU's...some authors use them as species equivalent units, some as subspecies equivalent units, and other authors use them as distinct population segments.
 
Zosterops are a bit of a headache if you only use morphometric data. Vocalisations and genetics seem to be the only dependable way for deliniating taxa. Cape White-eye Z. capensis, comprising capensis and virens, although differing considerably ( for White-eyes ) intergrade over a large part of the range and do not differ in vocalisations. Orange River White-eye Z. pallidus hybridises in a narrow zone with both taxa of capensis but differs noticably in voice. African Yellow White-eye Z. senegalensis is probably / possibly a species swarm with northern and western birds using the slurred 'lowland' type vocalisations and the southern birds the clear, sharp ' highland' type voice. It's going to be a long hard struggle to sort Zosterops out.

Chris
 
Oatley et al 2012

Oatley, Voelker, Crowe & Bowie (in press). A multi-locus phylogeny reveals a complex pattern of diversification related to climate and habitat heterogeneity in Southern African White-eyes. Mol Phylogenet Evol. [abstract]
 
African white-eyes

A joint meeting of British Ornithologists’ Club, African Bird Club, & Natural History Museum - Saturday 6th April 2013

15.00 Speciation in African White-eyes – Siobhan Cox
White-eyes form a remarkably similar group morphologically and the relationships of the various described forms remain far from clear. For her PhD Siobhan has used genetic techniques to revise understanding of relationships among African taxa, and she will present a review of the results from this.

Looking forward to the results ...
 
African White-eyes

Daniel Philippe said:
A joint meeting of British Ornithologists’ Club, African Bird Club, & Natural History Museum - Saturday 6th April 2013
15.00 Speciation in African White-eyes – Siobhan Cox
Click to expand...
www.boc-online.org/meetings-past-2013.htm
Dr. Siobhan Cox then talked about her genetic work producing a phylogeny for the white-eyes of the African mainland, focusing in particular on the east African region. Her results indicate that traditional taxonomic understanding is incorrect, notably for the Montane White-eye Zosterops poliogaster, and that there are likely to be more species than currently accepted.
Click to expand...
Talking Naturally (interview)...
In her talk titled 'Speciation in African White-eyes' Dr Siobhan Cox, described her work on the phylogeny of mainland Africa's White-eyes. A morphologically similar group the relationships between the various described forms of White-eye have long been far from clear: for her PhD Siobhan used genetic techniques that – when the results are published – will completely revise our understanding of how these taxa have arisen. First of all though, congratulations were in order.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
East African white-eyes

Habel, Cox, Gassert, Mulwa, Meyer & Lens (in press). Population genetics of the East African White-eye species complex. Conserv Genet. [abstract]

Finds significant intraspecific divergence within Zosterops poliogaster [sic] between populations from Mt Kasigau/Taita Hills (silvanus) and Chyulu Hills (chyulensis = mbuluensis?).

van Balen 2008 (HBW 13):
each of the races silvanus, kikuyuensis, eurycricotus, kulalensis, winifredae and mbuluensis has been considered to be a full species.

Other common names: ... Mbulu White-eye (mbuluensis); ... Taita/Teita White-eye (silvanus)
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Although my knowledge and therefore input to this discussion is purely from my limited bird watching experience, I have noted the Opus groups the Orange River White-Eye (Z. pallidus) under the larger umbrella of the Cape White-Eye(z. capensis). Both the Sasol 4th Ed. Sinclair et al and http://sabap2.adu.org.za/v1/species_id.php?Spp=1172 treat it as a separate species. Is it in fact an accepted split or has it still only got sub species status? If it is generally accepted as a separate species, could Opus be updated?
 
For Opus, the taxonomy follows Clements except when both IOC and H&M disagree (in the same direction). So far, Orange River White-Eye is accepted only by IOC.

Niels
 
East African white-eyes

Richard Klim said:
Habel, Cox, Gassert, Mulwa, Meyer & Lens (in press). Population genetics of the East African White-eye species complex. Conserv Genet. [abstract]
Click to expand...
Habel, Ulrich, Peters, Husemann & Lens (in press). Lowland panmixia versus highland disjunction: genetic and bioacoustic differentiation in two species of East African White-eye birds. Conserv Genet. [abstract]

van Balen 2008 (HBW 13):
 
Last edited:
East African white-eyes

Husemann, Ulrich & Habel (in press). The evolution of contact calls in isolated and overlapping populations of two white-eye congeners in East Africa (Aves, Zosterops). BMC Evol Biol 14(115). [abstract] [pdf]
 
Last edited:
Wogan, Bi, Oatley, Voelker & Bowie. Inferring differential introgression among Southern African White eyes. Evolution 2014. (p243)
The Southern African White eyes. White eyes (Zosterops) have earned the moniker the “great speciators” by exhibiting the highest rate of diversification estimated among vertebrates. The rapid speciation among the birds of this group, and the extremely wide geographic distribution (Old World tropics) makes them an interesting group within which to examine speciation and hybrid zone dynamics. Previous work shows that the Southern African White eyes (Z. capensis, Z. pallidus, Z. senegalensis, and Z. virens) have diversified within the 1million years, with the most recent species split occurring within the past 300 thousand years. Each species is distinguishable based on plumage and song and each is endemic to its own biome/habitat type. Where the biomes meet hybrid zones form indicating a complex pattern of diversification seemingly related to environmental heterogeneity. However, differentiating between hybridization and introgression versus ancestral polymorphism and incomplete lineage sorting in this system is a challenge given its recent diversification, and to do so requires large numbers of independent markers. Using several thousand orthologous genome-wide SNPs we first compare a new informatics pipeline with existing pipelines to evaluate how upstream informatics decisions affect downstream biological inference. We then use these data to estimate a species tree, evaluate population structure and differentiation, assess introgression across lineages using statistical approaches, and look at associations between genetic and spatial structure. We recover strong signals of population differentiation accompanied by signals of introgression among lineages, however we find that informatics decisions made during the early stages of filtering, merging, alignment, and SNP calling of RAD data can have strong effects on downstream inference, such that different and often conflicting biological signals emerge.
Click to expand...
[With thanks to Nick Sly.]​
 
Last edited:
Oatley, Graeme, 2011. Taxonomy, phylogeny and eco-biogeography of southern African white-eyes (Zosterops spp.) Aves: order Passeriformes, Family: Zosteropidae. PhD Thesis, University of Cape Town.

[PDF]
 
Richard Klim said:
Thompson & Taylor (in press). Is the Cape White-eye Zosterops virens or Zosterops capensis? Ostrich. [abstract & preview]
Click to expand...
Does anybody know?
Thompson & Taylor focus on taxonomy, but there is also a nomenclatural issue here: virens Sundevall, 1850 and capensis Sundevall, 1850 have equal priority. Thus we need a first reviser to have set the precedence between them. TiF suggested the FR might be Moreau 1957, however I see nothing clearly interpretable as a FR act in Moreau's work (I only find statements of the type "is conspecific with", without suggested actual nomenclatural treatment). IOC recently switched from a treatment giving precedence to capensis, to one giving precedence to virens.
Who is the first reviser?

EDIT - OK: On second look, I presume the FR is still Moreau 1957, here--he does not cite capensis at this point, but it is cited elsewhere in the text, and there he recognizes a Z. virens with a range including that of capensis.
 
Last edited:
l_raty wrote: "Thompson & Taylor focus on taxonomy, but there is also a nomenclatural issue here: virens Sundevall, 1850 and capensis Sundevall, 1850 have equal priority. Thus we need a first reviser to have set the precedence between them."

I do not understand this. If these names are synonymous, published in the same paper, you have the principle page priority: the first name mentioned is the valid name. A first revisor can't do anything about that (not even if he can spell english words, unlike me).

Fred
 
Warning! This thread is more than 10 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

J
Birding Asia Taxonomy
2
Replies
29
Views
7K
Andy Adcock
Andy Adcock
Daniel Philippe
East African White-eyes
Replies
1
Views
2K
MJB
MJB
Peter Kovalik
White-tailed Rubythroat
Replies
6
Views
3K
Peter Kovalik
Peter Kovalik
Peter Kovalik
White-eyes
Replies
0
Views
790
Peter Kovalik
Peter Kovalik
FormerMemberfor15years
More tz white-eye... Montane or African Yellow?
Replies
3
Views
894
FormerMemberfor15years
FormerMemberfor15years

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top