Parus

Eck, Siegfried, 2006, The Palaearctic Titmouse Species (Aves: Paridae: Parus sensu lato) — A current survey *, Zootaxa 1325, pp. 7-54 : 40

6. Parus [a.] weigoldicus

The extremely close kinship relations connecting members of the songarus group, together with weigoldicus , were never called into question — until Salzburger et al. (2002a) discovered a cytochrome­ b distance between weigoldicus and the other Willow Tit forms (incl. songarus, affinis) of 4.6–5.9% (cf. the distance between Blue and Ultramarine Tits!). Regarding its voice (Thönen 1996: 9, Fig. 7) and size relationships weigoldicus is reminiscent of the Songar Tits (see Martens et al. 1995: 370, Fig. 1 ); cf. under P. montanus , borealis group. In its coloration and the possibility of parapatry, however, it is also very clearly different from affinis etc.

P. weigoldicus KLEINSCHMIDT, 1921 [Mauntschi (Barongshiba) north of Batang, Sichuan, S China].

The population group: P 40 weigoldicus ; SW China. — Fig. ECK, 1980: Plate VI: bottom figure.

* Strikingly dark, “earth brown” (Kleinschmidt) on the back, very dark flanks, relative tail length (n=32) 86.3% ± 1.66, in songarus (P 38) (n=74) 86.3% ± 1.67. Wing length of ♂♂ (n=21) 65–70 mm, x = 67.4 mm ± 1.51; of ΨΨ (n=9) 64–69 mm, x = 66.0 mm ± 1.87. Tail length of ♂♂ (n=21) 56–61 mm, x = 58.2 mm ± 1.42; of ΨΨ (n=7) 53.5–59 mm, x = 56.7 mm ± 2.41.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Sympatric population groups of titmice (Parus) in the Palaearctic. The colour intensity corresponds to the density of sympatry. (Map: B. Pätzelt & T. Töpfer).