cox1 = COI (Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit 1) = "DNA barcodes".
Data from BOLD.
In
Eremophila, you get a situation comparable to what ND2 data show - 3 nearctic samples are sister, and pretty closely related to three palearctic sample, then you get two basal divergent sequences, one
E. bilopha, one
E. alpestris albigula from Iran. This is the only definite bird of the
penicillata group...
In Skylarks, we now have three clusters - the upper cluster is equivalent to the western ND2 cluster (UK, Iran, and Tuva in C Russia), the median cluster is equivalent to the eastern ND2 cluster (Mongolia, Korea, and one bird from S Sakhalin), the lower cluster is made of 5 birds from S Sakhalin. S Sakhalin is where
japonica is said to be sympatric with another race.
These data also suggest that we may well have a problem with
Calandrella...
With the
Calandrella's, however, there are also problems, I believe. (The groupings of
rufescens with
acutirostris, and
cheleensis with
brachydactyla, make very little sense from the beginning.) I have left the sequences labeled as they currently appear in the BOLD database, but I would be interested in any opinion about the ID of the birds (most of which are illustrated with pictures).
They can be accessed through
http://www.boldsystems.org - Click on the 'login' button under 'Management & Analysis', then above left on 'Search All Records', enter 'Calandrella' in the 'Taxonomy - Include:' box, and click 'Advanced Search'. From there, you can access a 'Specimen Page' for each sequence.
All of the sequences labeled '
rufescens' actually come from rather far east (Tuva, Mongolia), and most indeed have a note suggesting 'Calandrella cheleensis', which is probably what they all are (if you recognize this as a distinct species).
The sequence labeled '
acutirostris' is of a juvenile bird from Akkol in Kazakhstan, that has a very long primary projection (
heinei?).
The sequence labeled '
cheleensis' is from Dornod in Mongolia, and shows a bird with a rather plain breast and side patches; the wings are too damaged to assess structure, but to me this looks like a Greater ST Lark of some type, rather than a Lesser.
Oh, and if anybody wants to try the S Sakhalin Skylarks, they can be seen there as well...
