AOU-NACC Proposals 2015 (1 Viewer)

[Richard Klim]

American Tree Sparrow

Despite the newly recognized close relationship of the American Tree Sparrow to the Fox Sparrow/Junco group, it does not seem to have moved there. Instead, if I read it correctly, it remains in its old position at the beginning of the Spizella. Am I missing something?

Those were my thoughts exactly, Joe. Despite the new account for Spizelloides noting that "S. arborea is not closely related to true Spizella", the sequence remains unchanged: Spizelloides immediately precedes Spizella.

 

[jmorlan]

Thanks Richard. I just updated the official California checklist incorporating 56th supplement changes.

 

[Kratter]

Th rationale for maintaining Spizelloides where it is was given in the proposal:

The linear sequence of sparrows awaits huge changes resulting from recent
publications by the 9-primaried oscine phylogeny group. Thus, for the purposes of this
more narrowly focused proposal it might be desirable to leave the linear sequence
unchanged for the moment pending these eventual larger changes. Alternatively, a
stop-gap solution better reflecting evolutionary relationships of species near S. arborea
in the linear sequence might change the linear sequence to the following:

Xenospiza
Melospiza
Passerella
Spizelloides
Zonotrichia
Junco

Of course, we chose not to the alternative.

Andy

 

[Richard Klim]

Thanks, Andy. Sorry, I hadn't checked back to the rationale presented in the proposal.

 

[Paul Clapham]

Previously the AOU referred to the Phaethornis griseoventer group as "Jalisco Hermit" and the P. mexicanus group as "Hartert's Hermit". But now that these two groups have been split into a separate species P. mexicanus, the "Hartert's" nickname has been transferred to the baroni group of P. longirostris (sensu stricto). Up to now that group was nicknamed "Baron's Hermit". Did I miss something?

 

[Richard Klim]

Previously the AOU referred to the Phaethornis griseoventer group as "Jalisco Hermit" and the P. mexicanus group as "Hartert's Hermit". But now that these two groups have been split into a separate species P. mexicanus, the "Hartert's" nickname has been transferred to the baroni group of P. longirostris (sensu stricto). Up to now that group was nicknamed "Baron's Hermit". Did I miss something?

Neither Proposal 2015-B-9 nor Howell 2013 proposed renaming 'Baron's Hermit' (baroni group) as 'Hartert's Hermit'. Perhaps the NACC votes and comments (when posted) will reveal the rationale for the reshuffle of names...

['Hartert's Hermit' and 'Baron's Hermit' are associated with mexicanus E Hartert, 1897 and baroni E Hartert, 1897 respectively by both HBW/BirdLife and eBird/Clements v6.9 – consistent with AOU 1998. Monroe & Sibley 1993 also used 'Hartert's Hermit' for the mexicanus group.]

 

[mb1848]

The Fifty-sixth AOU Supplement
By Rick Wright
http://birdaz.com/blog/2015/07/02/the-fifty-sixth-aou-supplement .
Spizelloides arborea. I’m not especially happy with the new species name: I suppose that the epithet could be argued to fall under the exception in ICZN 30.1.4.4., but the AOU treats all other generic names in -oides as masculine, and it should this one, too.
Slager & Klicka:
Etymology. The generic epithet Spizelloides is formed from the sparrow genus Spizella and the Greek suffix -oidēs (resembling; Brown 1956). The name alludes to the evolutionary convergence in plumage, morphology, and behavior that led to Spizelloides arborea being considered a Spizella sparrow for many years. The gender of Spizelloides is feminine.
"It is worth pointing out that the citation the supplement gives for this woodstar’s original description is poorly formed; it should indicate that Gould published the name in the fourth volume of the fourth series of the Annals and Magazine, and that the name appears on pages 111-112. I expect that this will be corrected in the printed supplement." The article of Gould's is called, A description of ...a new hummingbird from the Bahamas. This is page 108. The description is 111-112. The name is page 112. And it is 4th series volume 4.
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27734935#page/124/mode/1up .

 

[Richard Klim]

The Fifty-sixth AOU Supplement
By Rick Wright
http://birdaz.com/blog/2015/07/02/the-fifty-sixth-aou-supplement .
Spizelloides arborea. I’m not especially happy with the new species name: I suppose that the epithet could be argued to fall under the exception in ICZN 30.1.4.4., but the AOU treats all other generic names in -oides as masculine, and it should this one, too.

The only Old World feminine example seems to be Turdoides.

 

[l_raty]

The Fifty-sixth AOU Supplement
By Rick Wright
http://birdaz.com/blog/2015/07/02/the-fifty-sixth-aou-supplement .
Spizelloides arborea. I’m not especially happy with the new species name: I suppose that the epithet could be argued to fall under the exception in ICZN 30.1.4.4., but the AOU treats all other generic names in -oides as masculine, and it should this one, too.
Slager & Klicka:
Etymology. The generic epithet Spizelloides is formed from the sparrow genus Spizella and the Greek suffix -oidēs (resembling; Brown 1956). The name alludes to the evolutionary convergence in plumage, morphology, and behavior that led to Spizelloides arborea being considered a Spizella sparrow for many years. The gender of Spizelloides is feminine.

In the [OD], the authors wrote explicitly "The gender of Spizelloides is feminine", and combined the name with arborea which is adjectival and feminine: this certainly falls under the exception ("A compound genus-group name ending in the suffix [...] -oides [...] is to be treated as masculine unless its author, when establishing the name, stated that it had another gender or treated it as such by combining it with an adjectival species-group name in another gender form.").

(Grammatically, this type of word might be viewed as a substantivized adjective "the Spizella-like one"; as such it would take its gender from the implied noun that "one" stands for. So if a Spizella-like bird [avis] is implied it might be feminine; if a Spizella-like sparrow [passer], masculine. With more obviously variable adjectives, the ending might indicate a gender; but in Greek the suffix is -οειδής [masc.], -οειδής [fem.], -οειδές [neut.], which may all be latinized into -oides, which therefore indicates nothing.)

 

[Rick Wright]

Yep, that satisfies the exception entirely. Still not sure why they wanted it that way, but they did.

The Fifty-sixth AOU Supplement
By Rick Wright
http://birdaz.com/blog/2015/07/02/the-fifty-sixth-aou-supplement .
Spizelloides arborea. I’m not especially happy with the new species name: I suppose that the epithet could be argued to fall under the exception in ICZN 30.1.4.4., but the AOU treats all other generic names in -oides as masculine, and it should this one, too.
Slager & Klicka:
Etymology. The generic epithet Spizelloides is formed from the sparrow genus Spizella and the Greek suffix -oidēs (resembling; Brown 1956). The name alludes to the evolutionary convergence in plumage, morphology, and behavior that led to Spizelloides arborea being considered a Spizella sparrow for many years. The gender of Spizelloides is feminine.
"It is worth pointing out that the citation the supplement gives for this woodstar’s original description is poorly formed; it should indicate that Gould published the name in the fourth volume of the fourth series of the Annals and Magazine, and that the name appears on pages 111-112. I expect that this will be corrected in the printed supplement." The article of Gould's is called, A description of ...a new hummingbird from the Bahamas. This is page 108. The description is 111-112. The name is page 112. And it is 4th series volume 4.
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27734935#page/124/mode/1up .

 

[l_raty]

Still not sure why they wanted it that way, but they did.

To avoid a change of ending in the specific name?

 

[mb1848]

"The only Old World feminine example seems to be Turdoides." Ernst and Paynter in 1964 said:"Mandatory correction for gender concordance" But no one else seems to agree. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=563547 . Cretzschmar formed Turdoides for leucocephala.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/6813080544/in/album-72157629526644753 . Temminck used the term merles turdoides in French for Ixos? Perhaps the Latin being merula Turdoides Cretzschmar made it female?
https://books.google.com/books?id=3...se+im+nördlichen+Afrika&source=gbs_navlinks_s . Page 7

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

Northern Harrier
I can't tell from the AOU list whether the NH 'non-split' is due to research findings, or a lack of research! Any ideas?

 

[Richard Klim]

Northern Harrier

I can't tell from the AOU list whether the NH 'non-split' is due to research findings, or a lack of research! Any ideas?

Proposal 2015-C-9 cited the latest research (Oatley et al 2015). Hopefully the votes and comments (when posted) will reveal why NACC remains unconvinced...

(Split now adopted by HBW/BirdLife, IOC, DB, OSME.)

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

Proposal 2015-C-9 cited the latest research (Oatley et al 2015). Hopefully the votes and comments (when posted) will reveal why NACC remains unconvinced...

(Split now adopted by HBW/BirdLife, IOC, DB, OSME.)

Thanks. Having just read it, I would give it the benefit of the doubt (then I do want an armchair tick)

 

[njlarsen]

Hopefully the votes and comments (when posted) will reveal why NACC remains unconvinced...

I am also eager to see those ...

Niels

 

[l_raty]

Hopefully the votes and comments (when posted) will reveal why NACC remains unconvinced...

I must say that I'm only half-convinced that the paraphyly is real...

- Oatley et al's nuclear data have basically no signal at this level of divergence (see first attached file), thus the node seems entirely, or nearly so, associated to the mitochondrial sequences;
- their nd1 + flanking tRNAs data do support Cinereous Harrier sister to Northern, but support (PP 0.94) is not high enough to be fully unambiguous;
- when the nuclear data are added to the mitochiondrial data, the support for this node (NB: not indicated at all in Fig.2) decreases significantly;
- DNA barcodes from BOLD suggest instead that Northern may be sister to Hen, albeit support is poor;
- if I combine sequences from the four genes used by Oatley et al. with barcodes, I end up with a trichotomy (see second attached file).

(But all this doesn't amount to an argument against Northern being a species, of course.)

 

[Richard Klim]

Votes and comments

checklist.aou.org/nacc/proposals/current_proposals.html

• Comments on Proposals 2015-A
• Comments on Proposals 2015-B
• Comments on Proposals 2015-C

 

[AlexC]

Uch... Northern Harrier one vote away. Shame on you, AOU.

 

[njlarsen]

I like the comment by the last person -- all the voters need to spend a spring or fall at a European raptor migration hotspot to appreciate what harriers really are.

Niels