Cryptic species in a colorful genus: Integrative taxonomy of the bush robins (Aves, Muscicapidae, Tarsiger) suggests two overlooked species

Chentao Wei; George Sangster; Urban Olsson; Pamela C Rasmussen; Lars Svensson; Cheng-Te Yao; Geoff J Carey; Paul J Leader; Ruiying Zhang; Guoling Chen; Gang Song; Fumin Lei; David S Wilcove; Per Alström; Yang Liu

doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107580

Cryptic species in a colorful genus: Integrative taxonomy of the bush robins (Aves, Muscicapidae, Tarsiger) suggests two overlooked species

Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2022 Oct:175:107580. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107580. Epub 2022 Jul 8.

Authors

Chentao Wei¹, George Sangster², Urban Olsson³, Pamela C Rasmussen⁴, Lars Svensson⁵, Cheng-Te Yao⁶, Geoff J Carey⁷, Paul J Leader⁷, Ruiying Zhang⁸, Guoling Chen⁹, Gang Song⁸, Fumin Lei⁸, David S Wilcove¹⁰, Per Alström¹¹, Yang Liu¹²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, MEE, Guangzhou 510530, China.
² Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
³ Biology and Environmental Sciences, Systematics and Biodiversity, University of Gothenburg, Box 463, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden; Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Box 461, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Integrative Biology and MSU Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48864, USA; Bird Group, The Natural History Museum-UK, Akeman Street, Tring, UK.
⁵ S:ta Toras väg 28, SE-269 77 Torekov, Sweden.
⁶ Medium Altitude Experimental Station, Endemic Species Research Institute, Chichi, 15 Nantou 552, Taiwan, China.
⁷ AEC Ltd, 127 Commercial Centre, Palm Springs, Hong Kong, China.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
¹⁰ Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: per.alstrom@ebc.uu.se.
¹² State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China. Electronic address: liuy353@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

PMID: 35810968
DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107580

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Bioacoustics; Disjunct distribution; Morphometrics; Multilocus phylogeny; Passerines; Sino-Himalayas.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Bayes Theorem
Biodiversity
Forests
Phylogeny
Songbirds*