Alcedinidae (1 Viewer)

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Is the Alcedo cristata of Gmelin (1788) the same as the Alcedo cristata of Pallas (1764). Gmelin places his species at Ambon, however I cannot find the original work of Pallas in which the species is described. Do you know where we can find his Adumbratiunculæ. Avium variarum praecedenti elencho insertarum, sed quæ in Systemate Naturæ Illustr. Linnæi nondum extant ?

 

[Xenospiza]

Beredeneerde catalogus van eene, by uitstek fraaye en weergaalooze verzameling, zoo van inlandsche als uitheemsche vogelen, viervoetige en gekorvene dieren ... - Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library works collaboratively to make biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community.

www.biodiversitylibrary.org

 

[Xenospiza]

But was it Pallas...? https://www.researchgate.net/public...an_Vroeg_1764_described_by_Pallas_and_Vosmaer

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Beredeneerde catalogus van eene, by uitstek fraaye en weergaalooze verzameling, zoo van inlandsche als uitheemsche vogelen, viervoetige en gekorvene dieren ... - Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library works collaboratively to make biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community.

www.biodiversitylibrary.org

Ok. Merci. So these are descriptions that were added at the last minute and not a full work? I understand better. I thought I would find the type locality of Alcedo cristata in the OD. But that doesn't tell me if Alcedo cristata Pallas (1764) and Alcedo cristata Gmelin (1788) are the same species.

 

[JustinJansen]

Gmelin described merely birds from Latham, so would it be mentioned in Latham?

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Gmelin described merely birds from Latham, so would it be mentioned in Latham?

Just check if Latham cites Pallas

 

[l_raty]

Ok. Merci. So these are descriptions that were added at the last minute and not a full work? I understand better. I thought I would find the type locality of Alcedo cristata in the OD. But that doesn't tell me if Alcedo cristata Pallas (1764) and Alcedo cristata Gmelin (1788) are the same species.

If you accept that the Alcedo cristata in the Adumbratiunculae (here) was the same as the kleine gekuifde ysvogel (Cristata) of the main text (here), then the type locality is given as the Cape of Good Hope.

Gmelin 1788 took this name from Linnaeus 1766. Note that the 1766 and 1788 diagnoses are perfectly identical ("A. brachyura subcristata caerulea, subtus rufa, crista nigro-undulata."), and the two references cited by Linnaeus 1766, Seba (here), and Brisson (text here, coloured version of the plate here), are repeated by Gmelin. Buffon's 'Le Vintsi' and Pl. Enl. 756, fig. 1 were associated to Brisson's bird by Buffon himself, and to Linnaeus' 1766 concept by Latham 1782; Gmelin followed this and added these three references to the two original ones.

I won't try to guess what Seba's bird may have been. (Indeed, I have no clear idea what many of Seba's birds were... )

The birds illustrated and described by Brisson and Buffon (greenish crest, the feathers with distinct black marks; a blue line running from the shoulder to the eye; rufous cheek; whitish throat) must have been some kind of Malachite Kingfisher, I believe -- either Malachite of Madagascar Malachite -- despite both authors claimed they were from the Philippines. None of the E Asian small Kingfishers shows similar characters. (Back then, ships that went to E Asia had to sail around Africa -- there would be nothing exaggeratedly strange in finding African material among what a ship coming back from the Philippines was bringing back.)

Pallas' bird is of course a Malachite Kingfisher too.

Linnaeus did not cite Pallas; neither did Latham.
(Linnaeus certainly knew Pallas' work, as he cited it ['Pall. adumb.', 'Pallas. adumbrant.', etc.] under a couple of other species. As for Latham, I guess it is quite probable that he had never seen this work at all.)

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Buffon's 'Le Vintsi' and Pl. Enl. 756, fig. 1 were associated to Brisson's bird by Buffon himself, and to Linnaeus' 1766 concept by Latham 1782; Gmelin followed this and added these three references to the two original ones.



The birds illustrated and described by Brisson and Buffon (greenish crest, the feathers with distinct black marks; a blue line running from the shoulder to the eye; rufous cheek; whitish throat) must have been some kind of Malachite Kingfisher, I believe -- either Malachite of Madagascar Malachite -- despite both authors claimed they were from the Philippines.

The bird illustrated on the Planches Enluminées has an orange beak, which is a characteristic of "Corythornis cristatus" but which is not found in vintsioides. I don't know if the specimens have deteriorated but the orange beak may be a determining criterion 🤔🧐

 

[l_raty]

The bird illustrated on the Planches Enluminées has an orange beak, which is a characteristic of "Corythornis cristatus" but which is not found in vintsioides.

Yes but the bird described and illustrated by Brisson had a black bill, hence, if a cristatus, it would have to be a juvenile -- which may not be compatible with the bright and shining upperparts colours described by this author...?

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Yes but the bird described and illustrated by Brisson had a black bill, hence, if a cristatus, it would have to be a juvenile -- which may not be compatible with the bright and shining upperparts colours described by this author...?

I'm asking myself all these questions because I wondered if there wasn't something wrong with the name "Martin-pêcheur vintsi" currently given to Corythornis vintsioides. This species was first described under the name Alcedo vintsioides — le Martin-pêcheur vintsioïde – because the authors found it to have many similarities with the Vintsy (per se), so the Martin-pêcheur vintsi is not vintsioides. That's why I wanted to know if all of the Alcedo cristata and "Le Vintsy" of Buffon used in literature referred to the same bird. If yes, "Martin-pêcheur vintsi" is a name synonymous with "Martin-pêcheur huppé ".

 

[l_raty]

I have no idea which rules you apply, which makes it a bit difficult to comment.

Buffon called his bird "vintsi", because he thought it was the same as Brisson's "Martin-pescheur hupé des Philippines", and Brisson had cited "vintsi" as a local (i.e., Filipino) name for this bird.
"Vintsy" is said in the Key to be a Malagasy name for Corythornis vintsioides. This seems to be confirmed by this. (Of course, a Malagasy name for "A species of crested kingfisher. Corythornis cristata, L." can only apply to C. vintsioides, as C. cristatus proper does not exist on Madagascar.)
The specimen described by Brisson had been brought back by Pierre Poivre. Brisson cited other birds that were brought back by Poivre from Madagascar (e.g., his "Gespier de Madagascar" : t.4 (1760) - Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés - Biodiversity Heritage Library), hence it is not inconceivable that the kingfisher came from there too. Actually, the fact that Brisson cited an apparent Malagasy name as a local name for his bird would tend to support this idea, I think.

If so, "vintsy" would be :
1) initially, a Malagasy name for Corythornis vintsioides,
2) second, a name cited as a local name by Brisson in association with a specimen that was actually C. vintsioides,
3) third, a name that was adopted as a French name by Buffon in association with a specimen (the orange-billed bird illustrated on Pl. Enl. 756) that was probably C. cristatus, which Buffon (erroneously) thought was the same species as Brisson's bird.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

I have no idea which rules you apply, which makes it a bit difficult to comment.

I try as best I can to respect the history of names used in naturalist literature. I still need to know where to look because there are a lot of works that I don't know about. That's why there are any "if" and conditionals.

Perfect, thank you. I should be more diligent in my research

 

[Peter Kovalik]

N. J. Collar and R. W. Martin (2024) Sangihe Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx sangirensis: a distinct and extinct endemic species. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 144: 76-90.
Sangihe Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx sangirensis: a distinct and extinct endemic species

Abstract
Adolf Meyer, first author of the name of the dwarf kingfisher Ceyx sangirensis, never visited the island of Sangihe, north of Sulawesi, on which he and co-author Wiglesworth stated the two syntypes were collected (by hired hunters) in the 1870s. The form was lumped with Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx fallax in 1945 and split again only in 2014, based on characters shown by two other specimens Meyer had sent to the UK. However, because (a) the species was (apparently) not seen again after Meyer's birds were collected in 1874 and (b) Meyer wrote elsewhere that the original labels of some of his Sulawesi material were lost, it was recently suggested that C. sangirensis did not originate on the island. Two further specimens have come to light (including one apparently taken in 1876, thus not by Meyer's collectors) and, although one syntype has been destroyed, the total of birds conforming to key diagnostic features and labelled from Sangihe is now six. This evidence combined with other information indicates that C. sangirensis is or was indeed endemic to Sangihe, and comparisons with 39 C. fallax confirm that it should be treated as a separate species, distinguished by its longer bill and tail, more extensive blue-spangled black crown, few or no shining pale turquoise lower dorsal feathers, more mauve or magenta wash dorsally with cobalt- or royal-blue on the uppertail-coverts, and less extensive white throat. A review of field work, including three months by one of us in remaining forest on the island in 2015, shows that the species has not definitively been seen since the 1870s and must regrettably be regarded as extinct.

 

[Jacana]

Devon A DeRaad, Alexandra N Files, Lucas H DeCicco, Rene P Martin, Jenna M McCullough, Piokera Holland, Douglas Pikacha, Ikuo G Tigulu, David Boseto, Tyrone H Lavery, Michael J Andersen, Robert G Moyle, Genomic patterns in the dwarf kingfishers of northern Melanesia reveal a mechanistic framework explaining the paradox of the great speciators, Evolution Letters, 2024;, qrae035, Genomic patterns in the dwarf kingfishers of northern Melanesia reveal a mechanistic framework explaining the paradox of the great speciators

Abstract
The paradox of the great speciators describes a contradictory biogeographic pattern exhibited by numerous avian lineages in Oceania. Specifically, these lineages display broad geographic distributions across the region, implying strong over-water dispersal capabilities; yet, they also display repeated genetic and phenotypic divergence—even between geographically proximate islands—implying poor inter-island dispersal capabilities. One group originally cited as evidence for this paradox is the dwarf kingfishers of the genus Ceyx. Here, using genomic sequencing and comprehensive geographic sampling of the monophyletic Ceyx radiation from northern Melanesia, we find repeated, deep genetic divergence and no evidence for gene flow between lineages found on geographically proximate islands, providing an exceptionally clear example of the paradox of the great speciators. A dated phylogenetic reconstruction suggests a significant burst of diversification occurred rapidly after reaching northern Melanesia, between 3.9 and 2.9 MYA. This pattern supports a shift in net diversification rate, concordant with the expectations of the “colonization cycle” hypothesis, which implies a historical shift in dispersiveness among great speciator lineages during the evolutionary past. Here, we present a formalized framework that explains how repeated founder effects and shifting selection pressures on highly dispersive genotypes are the only ultimate causes needed to generate the paradox of the great speciators. Within this framework, we emphasize that lineage-specific traits and island-specific abiotic factors will result in varying levels of selection pressure against dispersiveness, caused by varying proximate eco-evolutionary mechanisms. Overall, we highlight how understanding patterns of diversification in the Ceyx dwarf kingfishers helped us generate a cohesive framework that provides a rigorous mechanistic explanation for patterns concordant with the paradox of the great speciators and the repeated emergence of geographic radiations in island archipelagoes across the globe.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Jenna McCullough, Chad Eliason, Shannon J Hackett, Corinne E Myers, Michael J Andersen (2024). Phylogenomics of a genus of "Great Speciators" reveals rampant incomplete lineage sorting, gene flow, and mitochondrial capture in island systems. bioRxiv 2024.08.28.610082

Abstract
The flora and fauna of island systems, especially those in the Indo-Pacific, are renowned for their high diversification rates and outsized contribution to the development of evolutionary theories. The total diversity of geographic radiations of many Indo-Pacific fauna is often incompletely sampled in phylogenetic studies due to the difficulty in obtaining single island endemic forms across the Pacific and the relatively poor performance of degraded DNA when using museum specimens for inference of evolutionary relationships. New methods for production and analysis of genome-wide datasets sourced from degraded DNA are facilitating insights into the complex evolutionary histories of these influential island faunas. Here, we leverage whole genome resequencing (20X average coverage) and extensive sampling of all taxonomic diversity within Todiramphus kingfishers, a rapid radiation of largely island endemic "Great Speciators." We find that whole genome datasets do not outright resolve the evolutionary relationships of this clade: four types of molecular markers (UCEs, BUSCOs, SNPs, and mtDNA) and tree building methods did not find a single well-supported and concordant species-level topology. We then uncover evidence of widespread incomplete lineage sorting and both ancient and contemporary gene flow and demonstrate how these factors contribute to conflicting evolutionary histories. Our complete taxonomic sampling allowed us to further identify a novel case of mitochondrial capture between two allopatric species, suggesting a potential historical (but since lost) hybrid zone as islands were successively colonized. Taken together, these results highlight how increased genomic and taxon sampling can reveal complex evolutionary patterns in rapid island radiations.

Phylogenomics of a genus of ‘Great Speciators’ reveals rampant incomplete lineage sorting, gene flow, and mitochondrial capture in island systems

The flora and fauna of island systems, especially those in the Indo-Pacific, are renowned for their high diversification rates and outsized contribution to the development of evolutionary theories. The total diversity of geographic radiations of many Indo-Pacific fauna is often incompletely...

www.biorxiv.org

 

[Jacana]

They sort of recommend lumping T. enigma into T. chloris, though they also state that more work needs to be done, potentially including getting fresher sources of DNA for enigma.

They also recommend moving Todiramphus sacer pavuvu and mala to T. tristrami.

Based on the trees, I would think that there is a case for raising T. sacer regina to species level too. Either that or lumping T. reichenbachii into sacer.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

They sort of recommend lumping T. enigma into T. chloris, though they also state that more work needs to be done, potentially including getting fresher sources of DNA for enigma.

They also recommend moving Todiramphus sacer pavuvu and mala to T. tristrami.

Oddly enough, I would have thought of splits

 

[THE_FERN]

(I've not read anything which suggests Talaud kingfisher is a genuine species. It seems essentially undiagnosable in the field, for example)

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Jenna McCullough, Chad Eliason, Shannon J Hackett, Corinne E Myers, Michael J Andersen (2024). Phylogenomics of a genus of "Great Speciators" reveals rampant incomplete lineage sorting, gene flow, and mitochondrial capture in island systems. bioRxiv 2024.08.28.610082

Abstract
The flora and fauna of island systems, especially those in the Indo-Pacific, are renowned for their high diversification rates and outsized contribution to the development of evolutionary theories. The total diversity of geographic radiations of many Indo-Pacific fauna is often incompletely sampled in phylogenetic studies due to the difficulty in obtaining single island endemic forms across the Pacific and the relatively poor performance of degraded DNA when using museum specimens for inference of evolutionary relationships. New methods for production and analysis of genome-wide datasets sourced from degraded DNA are facilitating insights into the complex evolutionary histories of these influential island faunas. Here, we leverage whole genome resequencing (20X average coverage) and extensive sampling of all taxonomic diversity within Todiramphus kingfishers, a rapid radiation of largely island endemic "Great Speciators." We find that whole genome datasets do not outright resolve the evolutionary relationships of this clade: four types of molecular markers (UCEs, BUSCOs, SNPs, and mtDNA) and tree building methods did not find a single well-supported and concordant species-level topology. We then uncover evidence of widespread incomplete lineage sorting and both ancient and contemporary gene flow and demonstrate how these factors contribute to conflicting evolutionary histories. Our complete taxonomic sampling allowed us to further identify a novel case of mitochondrial capture between two allopatric species, suggesting a potential historical (but since lost) hybrid zone as islands were successively colonized. Taken together, these results highlight how increased genomic and taxon sampling can reveal complex evolutionary patterns in rapid island radiations.

Phylogenomics of a genus of ‘Great Speciators’ reveals rampant incomplete lineage sorting, gene flow, and mitochondrial capture in island systems

The flora and fauna of island systems, especially those in the Indo-Pacific, are renowned for their high diversification rates and outsized contribution to the development of evolutionary theories. The total diversity of geographic radiations of many Indo-Pacific fauna is often incompletely...

www.biorxiv.org

I try the best classification of genus Todiramphus according to their study. You will tell me if it is relevant or not.

• nigrocyaneus (nigrocyaneus, quadricolor, stictolaemus)
• winchelli (alfredi, mindonensis, nesydrionetes, nigrorum, winchelli)
• funebris
• albonotatus
• leucopygius or subspecies of diops
• diops
• lazuli or subspecies of diops
• macleayi (elisabeth, incinctus, macleayi) or subspecies of diops
• pyrrhopygius
• australasia (australasia, dammerianus, interposita, odites, tringorum)
• farquhari
• regina
• recurvirostris
• pelewensis
• cinnamominus
• godeffroyi or subspecies of veneratus
• tutus (atiu, gertrudae, mauke, tutus) or subspecies of veneratus
• ruficollaris or subspecies of veneratus
• veneratus (veneratus, youngi)
• reichenbachi
• sacer (amoenus, brachyurus, erromangae, eximius, juliae, manuae, marinus, melanodera, ornatus, pealei, sacer, santoensis, solomonis, sororum, tannensis, torresianus, utupuae, vicina, vitiensis)
• sanctus (canacorum, macmillani, norfolkiensis, sanctus, vagans)
• sordidus (colcloughi, pilbara, sordidus)
• gambieri ?
• chloris (abyssinicus, armstrongi, azelus, chloropterus, collaris, davisoni, enigma, humii, kalbaensis, laubmannianus, occipitalis, palmeri, teraokai, vidali)
• colonus
• tristrami (alberti, bennetii, mala, matthiae, novaehiberniae, nusae, pavuvu, stresemanni, tristrami)
• albicilla (albicilla, orii, owstonii)
• saurophagus (admiralitatis, anachoreta, saurophagus) or subspecies of albicilla

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Berryman A.J. (2025). Species limits in Syma kingfishers using plumage, morphometric and bioacoustic analyses. Zootaxa, 5604 (2): 156-166.

Species limits in Syma kingfishers using plumage, morphometric and bioacoustic analyses | Zootaxa

www.mapress.com

Abstract​

The genus Syma Lesson, 1827 is unanimously considered to comprise two very similar, altitudinally-segregated species in the New Guinea bioregion: Yellow-billed Kingfisher S. torotoro and Mountain Kingfisher S. megarhyncha. One taxon, S. t. ochracea of the D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago off eastern New Guinea, has recently been suggested as an independent species, but the evidence has so far remained unassembled. Here, I combine morphometric and plumage data of 127 museum specimens (including 34 of S. t. ochracea), and bioacoustic data from 52 sound recordings to analyse species limits in this complex. Morphologically, S. t. ochracea differs distinctly from both S. torotoro and S. megarhyncha in underpart colouration and is mensurally—but not geographically—intermediate between them (but with more overlap with S. megarhyncha rather than its current conspecific). Vocally, both the long and short songs of S. t. ochracea are highly divergent from other Syma populations. This body of evidence suggests that S. t. ochracea merits species rank, for which I suggest the English name ‘Ochre-bellied Kingfisher’. The IUCN Red List status of the newly split S. ochracea is determined to be Near Threatened.

My first tentative to recognise ochracea as distinct species was good