Nyctidromus derbyanus (Gould, 1838)

Sigurðsson, Snorri & Cracraft, Joel, 2014, Deciphering the diversity and history of New World nightjars (Aves: Caprimulgidae) using molecular phylogenetics, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 170 (3), pp. 506-545 : 541

NYCTIDROMUS DERBYANUS GOULD, 1838

Definition

Previously Nyctidromus albicollis derbyanus . It is elevated to full species status and is the sister species of N. albicollis .

Diagnosis

Noticeably larger than both N. albicollis and N. merrilli . Back, crown, outer primaries and secondaries are distinctly reddish in colour. Not as dark in colour as N. albicollis .

Comments

Genetic evidence in this study is consistent with N. albicollis being split into three phylogenetic species ( Fig. 6 ). Members of the nominate subspecies remain as N. albicollis , whereas N. a. derbyanus is elevated to full phylospecies status under the name N. derbyanus . Some individuals identified as N. a. albicollis may also belong to this phylospecies, particularly south of the Amazon River (see details in Discussion). The remaining four subspecies, N. a. insularis, N. a. intercedens, N. a. merrilli , and N. a. yucatanensis, can be united as a phylogenetic species: N. merrilli (see below).

Figures

Figure 6. A phylogeny of the genera Lurocalis, Nyctidromus, and Nyctiprogne within the South American clade, based on a maximum-likelihood (ML) analysis of a concatenated 5298-bp molecular data set. ML bootstrap values higher than 60 and Bayesian posterior probability values higher than 0.95 are displayed on the nodes. Names on the tree represent current taxonomy; names on the right represent those resulting from this revision (see text).