Undescribed (43 Viewers)

[Daniel Philippe]

Southeast Papuan Meliphaga honeyeaters

Norman & al. 2007 state that specimens from southeastern New Guinea currently assigned to M. aruensis represent a distinct taxon at specific level.

In the same area, Phil Gregory (in his 2008 checklist) has the SE Mimic Honeyeater M. (analoga) sp. nov.

Do you think they could be two different taxa ?

 

[Daniel Philippe]

Manucodes

In his 2008 checklist (yes, again … sorry … but this is the last one, I promise) Phil Gregory lists the Trumpet Manucode Phonygammus keraudrenii AND the Montane Manucode Phonygammus (keraudrenii) sp., but he does not give the range for the latter.

Do you know whether it is something new or merely a potential split ?

 

[Aracari]

Anyone know any news about the allegedly undescribed potoo (white-winged complex) captured by Cohn-Haft south of Manaus last year?

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

Hermit: Found in the Brazilian Amazon. A small, dark-throated species with a distinctive feature I'll leave for the description (which is in progress).

Just to add a brief update to the above, this may end up as a resurrection of an old name rather than the description of a truly "new" species.

 

[Papuan birder]

In his 2008 checklist (yes, again … sorry … but this is the last one, I promise) Phil Gregory lists the Trumpet Manucode Phonygammus keraudrenii AND the Montane Manucode Phonygammus (keraudrenii) sp., but he does not give the range for the latter.

Do you know whether it is something new or merely a potential split ?

I believe that the population of Trumpet Manucode in the Arfak Mts has been quite isolated for sometime, and possibly this population P. Gregory refers to, I have noted this myself before and have tried to get in touch with him.

 

[Papuan birder]

Norman & al. 2007 state that specimens from southeastern New Guinea currently assigned to M. aruensis represent a distinct taxon at specific level.

In the same area, Phil Gregory (in his 2008 checklist) has the SE Mimic Honeyeater M. (analoga) sp. nov.

Do you think they could be two different taxa ?

Which papper is "Norman & al. 2007"?

The New Guinean honeyeaters has been very poorly studied in recent decades (biological studies has been undertaken on some species), and also one of the most diverse groups. Could very well be two taxon involved.

 

[Papuan birder]

Phil Gregory recorded this bird Amblyornis (inornata) sp. in his 2008 Birds of New Guinea checklist.

Frith & Frith 2004 (The Bowerbirds) said that it may represent an undescribed species:
http://books.google.fr/books?id=KcC...&hl=fr&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result

Do we know more on this bird today ?

I believe not, but could be wrong. Hidde could possibly give you more up to date info regarding this bird.

 

[Daniel Philippe]

Which paper is "Norman & al. 2007"?

Norman, J. A., Rheindt, F. E., Rowe, D. L., Christidis, L. 2007
Speciation dynamics in the Australo-Papuan Meliphaga honeyeaters
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 42: 80–91

 

[Daniel Philippe]

I believe that the population of Trumpet Manucode in the Arfak Mts has been quite isolated for sometime, and possibly this population P. Gregory refers to, I have noted this myself before and have tried to get in touch with him.

Cracraft 1992 recognized 9 species (applying the PSC of course):

Phonygammus keraudrenii (Lesson & Garnot, 1826)
Western New Guinea: Vogelkop, Onin Peninsula and Weyland Mountains (lowland forest, but widely distributed into mountains).

Phonygammus jamesii (Sharpe, 1877)
Southern New Guinea from the Mimika River in the West, eastward to the vicinity of Hall Sound (lowland forest below 1000 to 1500 m).

Phonygammus aruensis Cracraft, 1992
Aru Islands, West Irian (broadly distributed across islands).

Phonygammus purpureoviolaceus (A. B. Meyer, 1885)
Mountains of southeastern (Astrolabe, Owen Stanley Ranges) and northeastern (lowlands of Huon Gulf region) New Guinea (forest habitat from about 950 to 2000 m (purpureoviolaceus) as well as lowlands (mayri)).

Phonygammus diamondi Cracraft, 1992
Eastern highlands, near Okapa, possibly including the northern portions of the Kratke Ranges, Papua New Guinea (hill forest, apparently between 1000 and 2000 m).

Phonygammus adelberti Gilliard & LeCroy, 1967
Adelbert Mountains, Papua New Guinea (hill forest, including up to about 1200 m).

Phonygammus neumanni (Reichenow, 1918)
Lordberg and Sepik Mountains, and Jimi and Baiyer Rivers valleys, and possibly Bismarck Mountains (presumably hill forest up to 1500 m on Lordberg Mountain).

Phonygammus hunsteini (Sharpe, 1882)
D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago: Fergusson, Goodenough and Normanby Islands (forest habitat).

Phonygammus gouldii (G. R. Gray, 1859)
Northern Queensland, Australia (lowland forest).


The Arfak population seems to be included in keraudrenii. Would it differ from keraudrenii more than the others ?

 

[sclateria]

Just to add a brief update to the above, this may end up as a resurrection of an old name rather than the description of a truly "new" species.

Indeed. Vitor Piacentini's work should be published soon, and would elevate Phaethornis longuemareus aethopyga to species status, probably as Dark-throated or Tapajos Hermit. Quite a distinctive hermit it is, too. The taxon had been treated as a hybrid between Phaethornis ruber ruber and Phaethornis rupurumii amazonicus by Hinkelmann (1996), but I can't get a hold of the actual paper to check this out. New specimens of the taxon have since invalidated Hinkelmann's hypothesis - field observations here in Alta Floresta also cast doubt onto the hybrid theory, given that aethopyga is uncommon to locally fairly common on the west bank of the Teles Pires river, but there are no confirmed records for Phaethornis rupurumii in the same area.

.

excellent thread btw - anyone know more about Bret Witney's new antbirds at Roosevelt?

cheers, alan

As Rasmus indicated, they may not all be described as species in the end. The Herpsilochmus is one of at least two species in that genus which are awaiting description - at the rio Roosevelt it seemed to be fairly common in forest at the edges of rocky campina, but also present in tall forest at river edges. The second Herpsilochmus[/I occurs west of the Madeira, and is common on the rio Tupana where they could be called in sometimes with tape of Herpsilochmus sellowi from NE Brazil.

I'm less convinced about the other two, the Myrmeciza and the Hypocnemis, but am inclined to defer to those with more experience.

The Cyanocorax jay found in campinas on the west bank of the rio Madeira is apparently most closely related to the Azure-naped Jay. Description in progress by Mario Cohn-Haft and colleagues. I also heard rumour a couple of years back of a new jay from the Jari area on the Pará-Amapá border, but know no details.


Hinkelmann, C. (1996) Evidence for natural hybridisation in hermit hummingbirds (Phaethornis spp.). Bull. Brit. Orn. Club 116(1):5-14.

 

[Daniel Philippe]

The New Guinean honeyeaters has been very poorly studied in recent decades (biological studies has been undertaken on some species), and also one of the most diverse groups. Could very well be two taxon involved.

I've just got a feedback from Phil and he acknowledges it's a split from M. aruensis and not M. analoga in his latest list.

 

[Daniel Philippe]

Talegalla

In his excellent West Papua trip report that he posted on Surfbirds yesterday http://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=1583 , Frank Rheindt explained he observed a potentially undescribed Talegalla (scroll down to the Fakfak section and you will find the following paragraph):
"Some of the best bird sightings at Woos I owe to Pak Dominggus, hunter extraordinaire. Having heard Talegalla brush-turkeys all over the place, he managed to flush one onto a tree, where it presented itself to me for more than an hour. To my immense surprise, the bird turned out to be not a Red-billed Brush-Turkey, as expected by distribution, but a Black-billed Brush-Turkey. I still regret not having taken a camera along that day, as the bird would have made for a great photo shot. The surprising element about this sighting is not only the fact that it constitutes a considerable range extension (to the best of my knowledge), but also that the bird had bright orange legs – contra the descriptions and illustrations in the field guide. Intriguingly, the leg color of this bird is more akin to that of Red-billed Brush-Turkeys. According to the field guide, Red-billed and Black-billed Brush-Turkey do overlap in south-west New Guinea, where they segregate along elevational lines (with Black-billed being lower). Pak Dominggus has caught and eaten dozens of these brush-turkeys over the years, and confirmed that all of them have this same bright leg color, and none of them look like Red-billed Brush-Turkeys in the book. Therefore, the Fakfak brush-turkeys probably constitute an isolated western population that may deserve taxonomic recognition. Alternatively, it may form the westernmost extension of the distribution of Black-billed Brush-Turkey, with leg colors gradually becoming paler towards the east. "

 

[Papuan birder]

I have been told that the populations of Corvus fuscicapillus in the Mamberamo Basin and Nimbokrang area belongs to a undescribed subspecies. This population is usually included in Corvus f. fuscicapillus (otherweise only found on the Aru Islands).

The population found in the lowlands of northern New Guinea was up until recently only known from a very small number of specimens collected from the Mamberamo River basin in the 1930s and 1950s, though about 10 years ago it was found in the Nimbokrang area, further to the east. No specimens has been collected from the Nimbokrang area and aim not aware of any closer examination of the few specimens that has been obtained from the Mamberamo Basin.

 

[Papuan birder]

In his excellent West Papua trip report that he posted on Surfbirds yesterday http://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=1583 , Frank Rheindt explained he observed a potentially undescribed Talegalla (scroll down to the Fakfak section and you will find the following paragraph):
"Some of the best bird sightings at Woos I owe to Pak Dominggus, hunter extraordinaire. Having heard Talegalla brush-turkeys all over the place, he managed to flush one onto a tree, where it presented itself to me for more than an hour. To my immense surprise, the bird turned out to be not a Red-billed Brush-Turkey, as expected by distribution, but a Black-billed Brush-Turkey. I still regret not having taken a camera along that day, as the bird would have made for a great photo shot. The surprising element about this sighting is not only the fact that it constitutes a considerable range extension (to the best of my knowledge), but also that the bird had bright orange legs – contra the descriptions and illustrations in the field guide. Intriguingly, the leg color of this bird is more akin to that of Red-billed Brush-Turkeys. According to the field guide, Red-billed and Black-billed Brush-Turkey do overlap in south-west New Guinea, where they segregate along elevational lines (with Black-billed being lower). Pak Dominggus has caught and eaten dozens of these brush-turkeys over the years, and confirmed that all of them have this same bright leg color, and none of them look like Red-billed Brush-Turkeys in the book. Therefore, the Fakfak brush-turkeys probably constitute an isolated western population that may deserve taxonomic recognition. Alternatively, it may form the westernmost extension of the distribution of Black-billed Brush-Turkey, with leg colors gradually becoming paler towards the east. "

This is in fact more likely to be a range extension for Talegalla fuscirostris meyeri, rather than being a undescribed s(ub)pecies of Talegalla. The distribution maps in Elliott (1994) is poor and even inaccurate in all of the Talegalla sp. accounts. In addition to that Elliott (1994) reckognize only two subspecies of T. fuscirostris, and given the wide distribution of this species its unlikely that only two subspecies are involved. Roselaar (1994) described two additional subspecies of T. fuscirostris (T. fuscirostris meyeri and T. fuscirostris aruensis), unfortunely to late to be included in Elliott (1994). Roselaar (1994) described T. fuscirostris meyeri from Nabire and it is found westwards to the Wandammnen Peninsula, a area not even included in the distribution map of T. fuscirostris by Elliott (1994).

The Wandammen Peninsula is just slightly to the east of the Fakfak Peninsula and it would only make sense if the T. fuscirostris population in the Fakfak Peninsula would be the same one which is found in the Wandammen Peninsula (meyeri). Rheindt (2008) further mention that T. cuvieri and T. fuscirostris replace each other elevational in south-west New Guinea (based on Elliott, 1994?) but this has only been confirmed in a very limited number of localities, and both species is widespread in the lowland and hill forests of south-western New Guinea. To the best of my knowledge there is no documented records of T. cuvieri from the Fakfak Peninsula (though expected).

Roselaar (1994) described the leg colour of T. fuscirostris meyeri as being everything from pale yellow to red, in which "orange legs" would fit in. Unfortunely Rheindt (2008) does not describe other chararestics of this Talegalla bird he saw.

 

[Daniel Philippe]

Ruffed Grouse

2 species ??

Last part of this article

 

[mb1848]

Here is link to Vancouver Island Ruffed Grouse Sound:
http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio.do?id=59280 .

Here is the description of B. u. brunnesscens :
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v037n04/p0204-p0206.pdf .

And a description of the Vancouver Island Ruffed Grouse drumming from “The naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia” by John Keast Lord in 1866:
“They slowly vibrate and then produce a sound, loud and clear, like the thrum of a double –bass string; faster and faster it comes, as the wings move with greater rapidity, until the beats have no distinctness, and the sound has become a throbbing hum.”
That description is much more like the Vancouver Island recording than the Massachusetts recording linked at Birding. I guess those old biologists could actually be good observers .

 

[Daniel Philippe]

Laos

This one looks interesting

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

This one looks interesting

He has received more info since the original version of the page was published. Worth reading the new summary section if you haven't, though he's misapplying "freedom of speech" (assuming he's in a country where that applies, he can say/write what he wishes [as he does on his webpage], but he cannot require that private fora publish it), it appears he doesn't fully understand the requirements for formally naming a new taxon, or for that matter is aware of the ICZN Code of Ethics (even if only a recommendation, not a strict requirement). He could have made himself immensely unpopular by rushing a new scientific name through when knowing that others had been working on the matter for a long time and a publication was on the way. Regardless, a very interesting bird and well done finding it. It'll be interesting to read the official description when it's out.

 

[jurek]

He could have made himself immensely unpopular by rushing a new name through when knowing that others had been working on the matter for a long time

Frankly? Those others who kept it secret and "had been working" on description for 10 years - are not so nice themselves!

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

He could have made himself immensely unpopular by rushing a new name through when knowing that others had been working on the matter for a long time and a publication was on the way.*

Frankly? Those others who kept it secret and "had been working" on description for 10 years - are not so nice themselves!

* As the ending is significant in this context, I have added the full sentence of mine in the above (rather than only the first half, originally quoted by jurek).

While many people may not be aware of this, it is far from unusual for a species to be known for years before being formally described (i.e. receive a scientific name). Try checking through this thread and see how many undescribed (possible) species are mentioned. Most of these have been known for years. If anything, this is the rule, not the exception. If the people that are about to describe this species are "not so nice", the same can be said about a fair percentage of the people that have described new species in the last few years. So, among the scientific community he certainly would have been unpopular if publishing a scientific name for the new species while knowing that other people had been working on if for a long time, and their publication was on the way (but as stated on his site; he fortunately doesn't intend to do this). This is also why the ICZN has the Code of Ethics, where such conduct is clearly discouraged (with the caveat that if you've been in contact about the issue with the original discoverers, and they still haven't published anything after 1+ year, you can go ahead). Fortunately, there are few recent cases where this rule actually appears to have been broken, but an example is R. Hoser and his description of the snake Acanthophis wellsi (A. wellsei [sic]), which lead to quite an uproar in the scientific community (both due the presumed breach of the ICZN Code of Ethics, and a number of unrelated issues).