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Francolinus francolinus (1 Viewer)

MJB

MJB

Well-known member
Bonaparte 1856 described two subspecies of Black Francolin, asiae and henrici. Were they described together, or separately? Which has priority?

Peter Boesman in Dutch Birding 41(2) describes vocal differences between eastern (approximately WP sensu novo) and Eastern (Asian) populations, but in the absence of any supporting evidence from such as pertinent DNA research, makes no taxonomic recommendations.
MJB
 
Interesting. Listening to Xeno Canto, there does seem to be a clear break between "yelping" western birds, and "grinding" eastern birds, somewhere in central Iran, but is there any obvious geographical barrier to gene flow between populations?
 
DMW said:
Interesting. Listening to Xeno Canto, there does seem to be a clear break between "yelping" western birds, and "grinding" eastern birds, somewhere in central Iran, but is there any obvious geographical barrier to gene flow between populations?
Click to expand...

Near Bandar Siraf on Google Maps the littoral southwards becomes more mountainous to the south, whereas to the north, there are more relatively open areas between ranges of mountains. Not much of a barrier, perhaps, but populations to the south perhaps are more likely to occupy higher altitudes year-round.

The Birds of Iran Annotated Checklist gives a hint of support for that speculation, in that the distribution of northern birds appears to be mainly lowlands, whereas the southern birds are given as occupying the foothills.
MJB
 
Thanks for the comment, MJB. There's certainly some pretty funky topography in that part of Iran, judging by the Google satellite images!
 
MJB said:
Perhaps Laurent will come up with his usual lucid explanation!
Click to expand...
I can't offer much more than agreeing with Mike -- the two names were published on the same day and at the same rank, thus the precedence between them is not fixed originally.
In such cases, the precedence will be fixed by the action of the "First Reviser": the first author who gives precedence to one of these two names over the other in a publication (either by an explicit statement, or by using one as the valid name of a taxon, while placing the other in its synonymy; only the action matters, the reason does not) effectively fixes this precedence.

In the present case, it seems reasonably likely that the precedence is not fixed yet. (If so, the first author who would implement a split would have the possibility to select the name (s)he prefers, and to fix it as the name of the eastern species.)
 
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MJB said:
in the absence of any supporting evidence from such as pertinent DNA research
Click to expand...
Some DNA research:
Forcina G, Guerrini M, van Grouw H, Gupta BK, Panayides P, Hadjigerou P, Al-Sheikhly OF, Awan MN, Khan AA, Zeder MA, Barbanera F. 2015. Impacts of biological globalization in the Mediterranean: unveiling the deep history of human-mediated gamebird dispersal. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A, 112: 3296–3301.
[free access]​

Forcina G, Panayides P, Guerrini M, Nardi F, Gupta BK, Mori E, Al-Sheikhly OF, Mansoori J, Khaliq I, Rank DN, Parasharya BM, Khan AA, Hadjigerou P, Barbanera F. 2012. Molecular evolution of the Asian francolins (Francolinus, Galliformes): a modern reappraisal of a classic study in speciation. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 65: 523–534.
[abstract] [fig.1] [fig.2] [fig.3] [fig.4] [fig.5] [suppl.1] [suppl.2]​
 
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l_raty said:
Some DNA research:
Forcina G, Guerrini M, van Grouw H, Gupta BK, Panayides P, Hadjigerou P, Al-Sheikhly OF, Awan MN, Khan AA, Zeder MA, Barbanera F. 2015. Impacts of biological globalization in the Mediterranean: unveiling the deep history of human-mediated gamebird dispersal. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A, 112: 3296–3301.
[free access]​

Forcina G, Panayides P, Guerrini M, Nardi F, Gupta BK, Mori E, Al-Sheikhly OF, Mansoori J, Khaliq I, Rank DN, Parasharya BM, Khan AA, Hadjigerou P, Barbanera F. 2012. Molecular evolution of the Asian francolins (Francolinus, Galliformes): a modern reappraisal of a classic study in speciation. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 65: 523–534.
[abstract] [fig.1] [fig.2] [fig.3] [fig.4] [fig.5] [suppl.1] [suppl.2]​
Click to expand...

Thank you Laurent. Giovanni Forcina recently kindly sent me the 2012 reference and I have already seen the 2015 one.
Yours aye,
Mike
 
Forcina G., Guerrini M., Panayides P., Hadjigerou P., Khan A.A. & Barbanera F., 2019. Molecular taxonomy and intra-Palaearctic boundary: new insights from the biogeography of the Black Francolin (Francolinus francolinus) by means of microsatellite DNA. Syst. Biodivers.

There
 
Daniel Philippe said:
Forcina G., Guerrini M., Panayides P., Hadjigerou P., Khan A.A. & Barbanera F., 2019. Molecular taxonomy and intra-Palaearctic boundary: new insights from the biogeography of the Black Francolin (Francolinus francolinus) by means of microsatellite DNA. Syst. Biodivers.

There
Click to expand...

Let's hope it becomes accessible soon!
MJB
 
With the additional findings of Forcina et al. (2019) there is now a clear genetic and vocal difference between the eastern and western group.
Another non-passerine case where voice and genetics clearly point in the same direction, even if morphologic differences are quite weak (at least based on literature).
 
Peter Boesman said:
Thanks! This nicely confirms what Forcina and myself concluded based on respectively genetic and vocal analysis.
Click to expand...

Peter,
I saw a couple but had heard another before that in May 2001 east of the Kōkeʻe road on a forested track about halfway up the Waimea Canyon, about 2 km below the current State Park Centre. Another armchair tick!
MJB
 
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