Synallaxis amazonica, Hellmayr, 1907

Stopiglia, Renata, Barbosa, Waleska, Ferreira, Mateus, Raposo, Marcos A, Dubois, Alain, Harvey, Michael G, Kirwan, Guy M, Forcato, Giovanna, Bockmann, Flavio A & Ribas, Camila C, 2022, Taxonomic challenges posed by discordant evolutionary scenarios supported by molecular and morphological data in the Amazonian Synallaxis rutilans group (Aves: Furnariidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 195 (1), pp. 65-87 : 81-82

SYNALLAXIS AMAZONICA HELLMAYR, 1907

Synallaxis rutilans amazonica Hellmayr, 1907: 14

(holotype, AMNH 523587 , an adult female from Itaituba , left bank of the Tapajós River , Pará, Brazil, examined by us; see Remarks 7 for comments) .

Synallaxis rutilans tertia Hellmayr, 1907:15 (holotype, NMW 20198, an adult female from Engenho do Gama , Guaporé River, Mato Grosso, Brazil).

Diagnosis: Synallaxis amazonica differs from S. omissa in having the forehead, supercilium and face amber (36). However, S. amazonica lacks any morphological diagnosis compared to S. rutilans , S. caquetensis and S. dissors , as both the rufous pattern of S. caquetensis and olive pattern of S. dissors occur in S. amazonica , including individuals with intermediate plumage.

Description: Throat sepia (119); breast amber (36), varying individually between robin rufous (340) and chestnut (32); abdomen and flanks olive brown (28), varying individually between clay colour (26) and raw umber (123), with elements of raw umber (123) as a secondary colour; rectrices sepia (119); back and crown olive brown (28), varying individually to Vandyke brown (121), with elements of raw umber (123) and Vandyke brown (121) as the secondary colour; forehead amber (36) varying individually to chestnut (32); supercilium and face amber (36), varying individually to chestnut (32); wing-coverts chestnut (32), varying individually to amber (36); remiges Vandyke brown (121), varying individually to Vandyke brown (221); bill length 11.7–14.6 mm; bill depth 3.8–5.0 mm; wing length 53.1–63.9 mm; tail length 54.0–72.0 mm, with ten rectrices (see Tables 7, 8).

Distribution: Understorey of terra firme forest in Brazil, S. amazonica occurs from the left bank of the Xingu River, in central Pará, and the right bank of the Amazonas/Solimões River, in Amazonia, southwest to western Mato Grosso, Rondônia, Acre and to eastern Peru and western Bolivia. The distribution of Synallaxis amazonica is represented in Figures 1 and 4 by the turquoise, blue and green colours of the Tapajós, Rondônia and Inambari endemic areas, respectively.

Remarks 7: Vaurie (1980: 117) mentioned that ‘As first reviser, I select amazonica ( Hellmayr, 1907: 14) as the name of the rufous populations, rather than tertia ( Hellmayr, 1907: 15), which Cory & Hellmayr (1925) noted subsequently is ‘closely similar’ to amazonica ’. Synallaxis r. amazonica Hellmayr, 1907 , was described simultaneously with Synallaxis r. tertia Hellmayr, 1907 , and from the moment that Vaurie (1980) considered these two names to be subjective synonyms he acted in accordance with Article 24.2.2 of the Code, wherein it is stated that determining the precedence of names is the role of the first reviser. We maintain the understanding of Vaurie (1980) that S. r.tertia is a junior subjective synonym of S.r.amazonica , but we think that S.r.amazonica should not be the name applied to‘rufous’ populations of the S.rutilans group. Populations with diagnostically rufous plumage are named Synallaxis caquetensis Chapman, 1914 , considering the type locality and the results of our analysis.Thus, in fact, the act of Vaurie(1980) as first reviser fixed the priority of S.r.amazonica ahead of S.r.tertia , but application of the name S. r.amazonica proposed here is distinct from that used by Vaurie (1980) and is not affected by his judgment as first reviser.

Figures

Figure 1. Map showing the distribution of sequenced individuals, phylogenetic time tree and plumage analyses for the Synallaxis rutilans group. The areas of endemism recognized by Silva et al. (2005) are highlighted on the map, and distribution points are numbered in accordance with individuals in the tree. The phylogenetic time tree is based on 1539 bp of concatenated ND2 and COI genes. Posterior probability values and the 95% HPD are indicated at each node. Thr, throat; Rec, rectrices; For, forehead; Sup, supercilium; Fac, face; Win, wing-coverts; Rem, remiges; 1st, first colour (main colour); 2nd, second colour (variation ±); 36 (e.g.), colours in Smithe’s catalogue; *, specimen damaged or immature; **, specimen analysed without Smithe’s catalogue; MPEG A, spirit collection specimen; dark grey circles in map and patches in table, specimens with grey plumage pattern; light grey circles and patches, specimens with olive plumage pattern; black circles and patches, specimens with rufous plumage pattern; purple star, type locality of S. r. dissors; red star, type locality of S. r. caquetensis; red star with white spot, type locality of S. r. confinis; blue star, type locality of S. r. amazonica; blue star with a white spot, type locality of S. r. tertia; orange star, type locality of S. r. rutilans; yellow star, type locality of S. r. omissa.

Figure 4. Plumage distribution and geographic variation in the Synallaxis rutilans group. Dark grey circles, specimens with grey-patterned plumage; pale grey circles, specimens with olive-patterned plumage; black circles, specimens with rufous-patterned plumage. Concerning intermediate individuals, any specimen with rufous present on the upperparts was classified in the ‘specimens with rufous-patterned plumage’ group. *Illustrations of birds with the typical plumage of: S. caquetensis (on the left); S. dissors (centre above); S. omissa (right). Area of endemism (AE) and distribution of species of the Synallaxis rutilans group: purple, Guiana EA, S. dissors; red, Napo EA, S. caquetensis; orange, Xingu EA, S. rutilans; yellow, Belém EA, S. omissa; and green, Inambari EA, blue, Rondônia EA and turquoise, Tapajós EA, S. amazonica. *Illustrations from del Hoyo J, Elliott A, Sargatal J, Christie DA, de Juana E, eds. 2017. Handbook of the birds of the world alive. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions (retrieved on 10.11.2017 from http://www.hbw.com).