TY - JOUR
T1 - Cryptic species in a colorful genus
T2 - Integrative taxonomy of the bush robins (Aves, Muscicapidae, Tarsiger) suggests two overlooked species
AU - Wei, Chentao
AU - Sangster, George
AU - Olsson, Urban
AU - Rasmussen, Pamela C.
AU - Svensson, Lars
AU - Yao, Cheng te
AU - Carey, Geoff J.
AU - Leader, Paul J.
AU - Zhang, Ruiying
AU - Chen, Guoling
AU - Song, Gang
AU - Lei, Fumin
AU - Wilcove, David S.
AU - Alström, Per
AU - Liu, Yang
N1 - Funding Information:
For samples, we gratefully acknowledge Paul Sweet and the American Museum of Natural History, Janet Hinshaw and the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Mark Adams and Robert Prŷs-Jones at the Natural History Museum, Björn Anderson, Cheung Ho-fai, Darren Irwin, Ulf Johansson,Trevor Price, Shu-Chi Chang, Jiawei Wu and Fangyuan Hua. For making specimens available for study, we thank staff of the following museums: American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA (AMNH), Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA (FMNH), Natural History Museum, Tring, UK (NHMUK), University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (UMMZ), National Museum of Natural History, National Animal Collection Resource Center, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOZ), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. USA (USNM) and Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany (ZMB). We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Swedish Research Council (2019-04486 to P.A.), Jornvall Foundation (to P.A. and U.O.), Mark and Mo Constantine (to P.A. U.O. and G.S.), China Postdoctoral foundation Grant #2018M640850 and Guangdong Natural Science Fund #2020A1515010887 (to C.W.). The fieldwork in southeast Tibet was funded by Ministry of Science and Technology of China #2014FY210200 (to F.L.). The field expedition to Qinghai was funded by Apple Inc.(to D. W. and Y. L.). We are very grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and an associated editor for their constructive comments and suggestions.
Funding Information:
For samples, we gratefully acknowledge Paul Sweet and the American Museum of Natural History, Janet Hinshaw and the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Mark Adams and Robert Prŷs-Jones at the Natural History Museum, Björn Anderson, Cheung Ho-fai, Darren Irwin, Ulf Johansson,Trevor Price, Shu-Chi Chang, Jiawei Wu and Fangyuan Hua. For making specimens available for study, we thank staff of the following museums: American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA (AMNH), Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA (FMNH), Natural History Museum, Tring, UK (NHMUK), University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (UMMZ), National Museum of Natural History, National Animal Collection Resource Center, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOZ), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA (USNM) and Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany (ZMB). We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Swedish Research Council (2019-04486 to P.A.), Jornvall Foundation (to P.A. and U.O.), Mark and Mo Constantine (to P.A., U.O. and G.S.), China Postdoctoral foundation Grant #2018M640850 and Guangdong Natural Science Fund #2020A1515010887 (to C.W.). The fieldwork in southeast Tibet was funded by Ministry of Science and Technology of China #2014FY210200 (to F.L.). The field expedition to Qinghai was funded by Apple Inc.(to D. W. and Y. L.). We are very grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and an associated editor for their constructive comments and suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - Several cryptic avian species have been validated by recent integrative taxonomic efforts in the Sino-Himalayan mountains, indicating that avian diversity in this global biodiversity hotspot may be underestimated. In the present study, we investigated species limits in the genus Tarsiger, the bush robins, a group of montane forest specialists with high species richness in the Sino-Himalayan region. Based on comprehensive sampling of all 11 subspecies of the six currently recognized species, we applied an integrative taxonomic approach by combining multilocus, acoustic, plumage and morphometric analyses. Our results reveal that the isolated north-central Chinese populations of Tarsiger cyanurus, described as the subspecies albocoeruleus but usually considered invalid, is distinctive in genetics and vocalisation, but only marginally differentiated in morphology. We also found the Taiwan endemic T. indicus formosanus to be distinctive in genetics, song and morphology from T. i. indicus and T. i. yunnanensis of the Sino-Himalayan mountains. Moreover, Bayesian species delimitation using BPP suggests that both albocoeruleus and formosanus merit full species status. We propose their treatment as ‘Qilian Bluetail’ T. albocoeruleus and ‘Taiwan Bush Robin’ T. formosanus, respectively.
AB - Several cryptic avian species have been validated by recent integrative taxonomic efforts in the Sino-Himalayan mountains, indicating that avian diversity in this global biodiversity hotspot may be underestimated. In the present study, we investigated species limits in the genus Tarsiger, the bush robins, a group of montane forest specialists with high species richness in the Sino-Himalayan region. Based on comprehensive sampling of all 11 subspecies of the six currently recognized species, we applied an integrative taxonomic approach by combining multilocus, acoustic, plumage and morphometric analyses. Our results reveal that the isolated north-central Chinese populations of Tarsiger cyanurus, described as the subspecies albocoeruleus but usually considered invalid, is distinctive in genetics and vocalisation, but only marginally differentiated in morphology. We also found the Taiwan endemic T. indicus formosanus to be distinctive in genetics, song and morphology from T. i. indicus and T. i. yunnanensis of the Sino-Himalayan mountains. Moreover, Bayesian species delimitation using BPP suggests that both albocoeruleus and formosanus merit full species status. We propose their treatment as ‘Qilian Bluetail’ T. albocoeruleus and ‘Taiwan Bush Robin’ T. formosanus, respectively.
KW - Bioacoustics
KW - Disjunct distribution
KW - Morphometrics
KW - Multilocus phylogeny
KW - Passerines
KW - Sino-Himalayas
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134306907&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85134306907&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107580
DO - 10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107580
M3 - Article
C2 - 35810968
AN - SCOPUS:85134306907
SN - 1055-7903
VL - 175
JO - Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
JF - Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
M1 - 107580
ER -