Nomenclature of the Hawaiian Akialoas and Nukupuus (Aves: Drepanidini)
01 Jan 1995-Vol. 108, Iss: 3, pp 373-387
TL;DR: From a review of evidence concerning dates of pub- lication, it is concluded that for nomenclatural purposes Hemignathus and Het- erorhynchus were pubUshed simultaneously and HemignATHus has precedence according to the first reviser principle.
Abstract: Storrs L. Olson and Helen F. James Etepartment of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560, U.S.A Abstract.•The generic names Hemignathus Lichtenstein, 1839, and Het- erorhynchus Lafresnaye, 1839, often used for the akialoas and the nukupuus, respectively, have the same type species {Hemignathus lucidus) so ifthe akialoas are given the status of a separate genus or subgenus, there is no generic-level name available for them. From a review of evidence concerning dates of pub- lication we conclude that for nomenclatural purposes Hemignathus and Het- erorhynchus were pubUshed simultaneously and Hemignathus has precedence according to the first reviser principle. The correct citation for the Oahu Akialoa is shown to be Drepanis ellisiana G. R. Gray (1859) rather than Hemignathus lichtensteini Wilson (1889). The name Hemignathus stejnegeri Wilson (1889) has priority over H. procerus Cabanis (1890) and is restored for the Kauai Akialoa. As no other name is available for akialoas, the new generic name Akialoa is proposed here (type species Certhia obscura Gmelin). The new names resulting from these nomenclatural changes are listed. In the spectacular Hawaiian radiation of cardueline finches of the tribe Drepanidini, there are few more distinctive birds than the akialoas and nukupuus, which consti- tute the genus Hemignathus in the sense of Amadon (1950) and other authors, before and after him. The akialoas comprise five named taxa (one fossil) of medium-sized to large drepanidines with very long, decurved bills, the upper and lower parts ofwhich are ofnearly equal length (Fig. 1). Similar prob- ing bills have evolved in various other groups of arboreal birds such as the babblers {Xiphirhynchus: Timaliidae), sunbirds {Ar- achnothera: Nectariniidae), woodcreepers (Campyloramphus: Dendrocolaptidae), and the woodhoopoes (Phoeniculidae). In the nukupuus (four named taxa, including the akiapolaau oiHav/au•Heterorhynchus wil- soni Rothschild), the upper jaw is likewise prolonged into a long, decurved probe, but the lower is much shorter (Fig. 1) and is used for pounding, prying, and pecking. The bill morphology of nukupuus is unique and has no parallel among other birds. Unfortunately, upon these birds are heaped some of the most convoluted no- menclatural problems, at both the generic and specific levels, to be found in any group of Hawaiian birds. Numerous authors, par- ticularly in the earlier literature, maintained Hemignathus and Heterorhynchus as dis- tinct genera (e.g., Rothschild 1893d, Bryan 1901). Since the revision of Amadon (1950), however, Heterorhynchus has usually been treated as a subgenus oi Hemignathus (e.g., Greenway 1968, American Ornithologists' Union 1983). As we shall see, this is no- menclaturally incorrect, as both generic names have the same type species. Pratt (1979) greatly expanded the genus Hemignathus by including in it the ama- kihis (Loxops virens, L. parva, and L. sag- ittirostris sensu Amadon 1950), which he placed in the subgenus Viridonia Rothschild 1892). At the same time he continued to
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01 Jan 2015
708 citations
Smithsonian Institution1, National Museum of Natural History2, University of Minnesota3, University of California, Berkeley4, Florida Museum of Natural History5, Cornell University6, Michigan State University7, Houston Museum of Natural Science8, University of Toronto9, Field Museum of Natural History10, University of Alaska Fairbanks11
TL;DR: The Auk, Vol.
Abstract: The Auk, Vol. 128, Number 3, pages 600−613. ISSN 0004-8038, electronic ISSN 1938-4254. 2011 by The American Ornithologists’ Union. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals. com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/auk.2011.128.3.600 R. TeRRy ChesseR,1,12,13 RiChaRd C. Banks,1 F. keiTh BaRkeR,2 CaRla CiCeRo,3 Jon l. dunn,4 andRew w. kRaTTeR,5 iRBy J. loveTTe,6 Pamela C. Rasmussen,7 J. v. Remsen, JR.,8 James d. Rising,9 douglas F. sToTz,10 and kevin winkeR11
261 citations
TL;DR: The finding that, when subspecies are considered, the extinction rate has accelerated in recent decades is both novel and alarming.
Abstract: Birds have long fascinated scientists and travellers, so their distribution and abundance through time have been better documented than those of other organisms. Many bird species are known to have gone extinct, but information on subspecies extinctions has never been synthesised comprehensively. We reviewed the timing, spatial patterns, trends and causes of avian extinctions on a global scale, identifying 279 ultrataxa (141 monotypic species and 138 subspecies of polytypic species) that have gone extinct since 1500. Species extinctions peaked in the early 20th century, then fell until the mid 20th century, and have subsequently accelerated. However, extinctions of ultrataxa peaked in the second half of the 20th century. This trend reflects a consistent decline in the rate of extinctions on islands since the beginning of the 20th century, but an acceleration in the extinction rate on continents. Most losses (78.7% of species and 63.0% of subspecies) occurred on oceanic islands. Geographic foci of extinctions include the Hawaiian Islands (36 taxa), mainland Australia and islands (29 taxa), the Mascarene Islands (27 taxa), New Zealand (22 taxa) and French Polynesia (19 taxa). The major proximate drivers of extinction for both species and subspecies are invasive alien species (58.2% and 50.7% of species and subspecies, respectively), hunting (52.4% and 18.8%) and agriculture, including non-timber crops and livestock farming (14.9% and 31.9%). In general, the distribution and drivers of subspecific extinctions are similar to those for species extinctions. However, our finding that, when subspecies are considered, the extinction rate has accelerated in recent decades is both novel and alarming.
123 citations
Cites background from "Nomenclature of the Hawaiian Akialo..."
...Maui Nui Akialoa Hemignathus ellisianus lanaiensis Hawaiian Is, USA 1892 The taxon is lnown from only three specimens, collected in 1892 on Lana‘i (Olson and James 1995)....
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...Kauai Akialoa Hemignathus ellisianus stejnegeri Hawaiian Is, USA 1969 The taxon was last recorded in 1969 (Olson and James 1995), around which time it is thought to have gone extinct (E....
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...Oahu Akialoa Hemignathus ellisianus ellisianus Hawaiian Is, USA 1868 (1837–1900) Known from only two specimens collected in 1837 (Olson and James 1995) and undocumented reports in 1937 and 1940 (Greenway 1967)....
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TL;DR: The results obtained allowed us to assess the importance of knowing the total number of birds in North and Middle America, not just the number of individuals, as well as the distribution of these birds in the region.
Abstract: 1 U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA 2 Alexandria, Virginia, USA 3 Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA 4 Bishop, California, USA 5 Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA 6 Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA 7 Museo de Zoologia, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico 8 Michigan State University Museum and Department of Zoology, East Lansing, Michigan, USA 9 Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA 10 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ramsay Wright Labs, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 11 Environment, Culture and Conservation, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA 12 University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA * Corresponding author: chessert@si.edu; Chairman of the Committee on Classification and Nomenclature—North and Middle America, of the American Ornithologists’ Union. All authors are members of the Committee and are listed alphabetically after the Chairman.
98 citations
TL;DR: The history of the subspecies concept and the major debates and issues surrounding its use are summarized, with an emphasis on ornithology, in which the concept originated.
Abstract: in this review i summarize the history of the subspecies concept and the major debates and issues surrounding its use, with an emphasis on ornithology, in which the concept originated. The study of subspecific variation in birds has been an important driving force in the development of evolutionary biology. Subspecific study has also been essential in the description and preservation of biodiversity. Although controversy has surrounded the concept of subspecies since its inception, it continues to play an important role in both basic and applied science. i cover 10 relevant issues that have been largely resolved during this 150-year controversy, although not all are widely appreciated or universally accepted. These include nomenclature, sampling theory, evolutionary biology, and the heterogeneity of named subspecies. i also address three big unresolved questions and some of the philosophy of science related to them: What are subspecies, how do we diagnose them, and what does subspecific variation mean? discordance between genotypic and phenotypic data at these shallow evolutionary levels should be expected. The process of diagnosing states that exist along a continuum of differentiation can be difficult and contentious and necessarily has some arbitrariness; professional standards can be developed so that such diagnoses are objective. Taxonomies will change as standards do and as more data accrue. Given present evidence, our null hypothesis should be that subspecific variation probably reflects local adaptation. in looking forward, it seems assured that geographically partitioned variation— and the convenient label "subspecies"—will continue to play an integral role in zoology.
97 citations
References
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Journal Article•
376 citations
306 citations
01 Jan 1982
TL;DR: Olson, Storrs, and Prodromus as discussed by the authors discussed the fossil deposits and the physical and biological features of the islands in order to provide background information for future systematic publications on the fossil and modern avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands.
Abstract: Olson, Storrs L., and Helen F. James. Prodromus of the Fossil Avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, number 365, 59 pages, 12 figures, 1982.—In the past decade, fossil deposits from five of the main Hawaiian Islands have yielded thousands of bones of extinct and living species of birds. Through these specimens, the number of endemic species of land birds in the avifauna of the main islands has been more than doubled. There are 40 extinct species known only from bones, including 1 petrel (Procellariidae), 2 ibises (Plataleidae), 7 geese (Anatidae), 1 small hawk and 1 eagle (Accipitridae), 7 rails (Rallidae), 3 species of a new genus of owl (Strigidae), 2 large crows (Corvidae), 1 honeyeater (Meliphagidae), and at least 15 species of Hawaiian finches (Fringillidae, Drepanidini). The present report discusses the fossil deposits and the physical and biological features of the islands in order to provide background information for our future systematic publications on the fossil and modern avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. An informal listing of the species found as fossils permits preliminary analyses of extinction and biogeography. The major fossil "localities are on the islands of Kauai, Oahu, and Molokai, from each of which there are diverse collections of small passerines, as well as many specimens of nonpasserine land birds, shorebirds, and seabirds. Fossils of a few additional extinct species have been found incidentally on Maui and Hawaii. Bones of extinct birds have been found in situations as diverse as sand dunes, sinkholes, and a flooded cavern in a raised coral reef, lava tubes, loess deposits, an ash deposit under a lava flow, and in archeological sites. Although some of the fossil deposits may be from the late Pleistocene epoch, most of the more important ones are probably Holocene, ranging from about 6700 years B.P. to much younger. Evidence is presented to show that the extinct species of birds survived into the period of" Polynesian colonization. We believe that the extinction of half or more of the land birds of the Hawaiian Islands prior to European discovery resulted mainly from the destruction of lowland forest by Polynesians, augmented by predation by man and introduced mammals. This has altered the distribution of species within the archipelago as well as the species composition of individual islands in such a drastic manner as to suggest that the data used in traditional and modern ecological studies of island biogeography may be too incomplete to permit generalizations about any islands that were settled by prehistoric man. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and is recorded in the Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. SERIES COVER DESIGN: The coral Montastrea cavemosa (Linnaeus). Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Olson, Storrs L. Prodromus of the fossil avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. (Smithsonian contributions to zoology ; no. 365) Bibliography: p. Supt. of Docs, no.: SI 1.27:365 1. Birds, Fossil. 2. Birds, Extinct. 3. Paleontology—Hawaii. I. James, Helen F. II. Title. III. Scries QL1.S54 no. 365 [QE871] 591s 82-600157 [568'.09969] AACR2
220 citations
161 citations
01 Jan 1979
TL;DR: The avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands, the w orld 's m ost iso lated arch ipelago, provides exam ples of evolutionary divergence a t every level from subspeciation within a single sm all island to developm ent of endemic taxa a t the subfam ily level.
Abstract: The avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands, the w orld 's m ost iso lated arch ipelago , provides exam ples of evolutionary divergence a t every level from subspeciation within a single sm all island to developm ent of endemic taxa a t the subfam ily level. The rela tionsh ips of a ll breeding land and freshw ater b irds a re d iscussed , and generic and species lim its a re re a sse sse d on the basis of a wide varie ty of c h a rac te rs including m orphology, behavior, vocalizations, breeding biology, and ecology. A llopatric species a re recognized w here potential m orphological, ethological, o r ecological isolating m echanism s ex is t. In tra -is lan d geographic varia tion is dem onstrated fo r Chasiem pis sandw ichensis on H aw ai'i, with th ree subspecies recognized: C. s . ridgwayi in the wet windward fo re s ts ; C_. s . sandw ichensis in Kona and southern Ka'u; and C. s . b ryan i in the dry leew ard uplands of Mauna Kea. The Hawaiian honeycreepers a re shown to be a monophyletic offshoot of cardueline finch stock, and a re c lassified as a subfam ily, D repanidinae, of the F ring illidae . Two c h a ra c te rs , a distinctive odor and a truncate base of the tongue, ch arac te rize the taxon. T hree tr ib e s a re recognized: the P s itt iro s tr in i com prising five finch-billed genera; the Hem ignathini com prising four g reen plumaged insectivorous genera; and D repanidini com prising four genera of red and black-plum aged n ec ta rivo res . The genera a re redefined on the basis of shared adaptive fac ies. A t the species level, Loxops c ae ru le iro s tr is is shown by vocal playback experim ents and ecological d ifferences to be d istinct from L. coccineus. Hemignathus s te jn eg eri is separa ted from H. v irens on the basis of adaptive differences and possib le vocal iso lating m echanism s. Hemignathus obscurus includes the Kaua’i form p ro ce ru s , which rep re sen ts one extrem e of a m orphocline. T elespyza cantans and T . u ltim a a re regarded as separa te species. The possib ility that Rhodacanthis flaviceps actually rep re sen ts im m ature specim ens of R . pa lm eri is d iscussed and considered to be likely. A replacem ent nam e, Hemignathus m unroi. is proposed fo r H. w ilsoni, preoccupied because of generic sh ifts in th is c lassifica tion . The complex known as " c re e p e rs ,” fo rm erly considered a single sp ec ies , is shown to com prise five species belonging to two genera , O reom ystis and P aro reom yza . The la t te r genus may not belong to the D repanidinae. The Hawaiian th rushes a re shown to be inseparab le generically from the A m erican so lita ire s of the genus M yadestes. and not to be closely re la ted to the n igh tingale-th rushes (Catharus) as suggested in recen t check lists . Playback experim ents dem onstrate the specific d istinc tness of th ree Hawaiian M yadestes. and two o thers a re tentatively recognized on the b asis of m orphology. Among nonpasserines, the endemic s t i l t is considered conspecific with Himantopus m exicanus of North A m erica, but the Hawaiian Coot is considered an endem ic species, Fulica a la i. Evidence is p resen ted that the Hawaiian Duck, Anas wyvilliana. is sym patric with Anas platyrhynchos during the pairing
26 citations