Ephippiospingus, Burns, Kevin J., Unitt, Philip & Mason, Nicholas A., 2016

Burns, Kevin J., Unitt, Philip & Mason, Nicholas A., 2016, A genus-level classification of the family Thraupidae (Class Aves: Order Passeriformes), Zootaxa 4088 (3), pp. 329-354 : 341

22. Ephippiospingus , new genus ( Fig. 4 )

Type species. Phrygilus dorsalis Cabanis, 1883 .

Included species. Ephippiospingus dorsalis (Cabanis, 1883) and Ephippiospingus erythronotus (Philippi & Landbeck, 1861) , currently recognized as Phrygilus dorsalis and Phrygilus erythronotus .

Diagnosis. In at least some plumages, these two species share an upper back and mantle that are colored differently from the rest of the body, giving a saddle-like appearance. In adult E. dorsalis , the saddle is rufous, but in juveniles, the saddle is duller and streaked. Juveniles of E. erythronotus are similar to juveniles of E. dorsalis with a brown back contrasting with mostly gray plumage. Adults of E. erythronotus have slate gray backs. Additionally, we have identified 47 unreversed molecular synapomorphies across six genes (numbered by their position in the gene alignment). These are, for cyt b: T161C, C228T, C237T, C289T, A291T, A366C, C372G, C384T, A402T, A414G, A444G, C462T, C577A, and C660T; for ND2: A31T, C37T, A61A, C147T, C156G, G202A, A225G, A234C, A252G, C378T, C381G, A447G, A475G, A528G, T584C, A589G, A672G, A690G, A810A, A834G, G953T, C958T, and C987A; for ACO1: C310T and C409Y; for FGB-I5: G190A, and A272G; for MB-I2: G475C; for RAG1: A183G, T205C, C1198T, T1723C, and T2425G. Cladistically, we define this genus as the descendants of the common ancestor of Ephippiospingus dorsalis and Ephippiospingus erythronotus .

Etymology. The name is formed from the Greek ἐφιππιον (“saddle”) and Greek σπίγγος (“finch”), alluding to the contrasting rufous saddle on the back of E. dorsalis and the juvenile of E. erythronotus (whose name means “red-backed”).

Comments. The traditional genus Phrygilus (the sierra-finches) is one of the most polyphyletic of all tanagers (Campagna et al. 2011; Burns et al. 2014). Among the sierra-finches, P. d or s al i s and P. erythronotus form a strongly supported clade (PP = 1.0; ML bootstrap 100%) within the subfamily Diglossinae ( Fig. 4 ). The type species of Phrygilus ( Fringilla gayi Gervais, 1834 , currently Phrygilus gayi ) is also a member of the subfamily Diglossinae but is not closely related to P. dorsalis or P. erythronotus . Instead, these two species form a clade with Diuca speculifera (d’Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837) and Idiopsar brachyurus Cassin, 1867 ( Fig. 4 ). The clade containing these four species is strongly supported (PP = 1.0, ML bootstrap = 100%); thus, all four species could be merged into a single genus, and Idiopsar would be the appropriate generic name to apply for this purpose (see discussion of Diuca in the next section). However, the four species are more diverse behaviorally and morphologically than is typical of genera currently used in the Thraupidae . In particular, Idiopsar brachyurus has a large, pointed bill that it uses to probe lichen and moss on boulders and Polylepis trees (Lloyd et al. 2005). Thus we propose maintaining Idiopsar , placing Diuca speculifera in a separate genus (see number 23 below), and applying a new generic name to the two sierra finches in this clade. Accordingly, we provide Ephippiospingus for the last two species.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Maximum clade credibility tree from the Bayesian analyses of Burns et al. (2014). Subfamily Diglossinae shown. Labeling and format as in Fig. 1.