Myiopagis olallai subsp. incognita
Creators: name: Cuervo, Andrés M.
name: Stiles, F. Gary
name: Lentino, Miguel
name: Brumfield, Robb T.
name: Derryberry, Elizabeth P.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Aves
Passeriformes
Tyrannidae
Myiopagis
Myiopagis olallai
Myiopagis olallai incognita

description: Myiopagis olallai incognita, taxon novum
Holotype. An adult male deposited in the Adolfo Pons ornithological collection, Caracas (Pons 3861) from Ayapa (=La Sabana), upper Río Negro, State of Zulia, Venezuela (ca. 10°02’N, 72°45’W; 1100 m elevation); collected by M. Nava on 18 August 1951.
Diagnosis. A flycatcher of the genus Myiopagis, similar to M. o. olallai and M. o. coopmansi in morphometrics (Table 3) and the color and pattern of the pileum and crown patch, nape, dorsum and wing markings. Distinguished from nominate olallai by its pale gray, rather than bright yellow, underparts, and its pale grayish-olive breast with no hint of olive wash. Although it is more similar to coopmansi, it is distinguished from this taxon by its unmarked pale gray throat and more uniform underparts, brighter pale yellow posterior underparts and flanks, paler gray pileum, and duller green upperparts (Fig. 7). Bill tends to be thicker in M. o. incognita than in coopmansi or M. o. olallai (Table 3). The sexes are similar, as in olallai and unlike M. caniceps (Fig. 8).
Description of holotype. Forehead, crown and nape are neutral gray (Dark Neutral Gray 83), and the midcrown exhibits a large, semi-concealed white patch formed by white feathers with dark gray tips (Black Neutral Gray 82). Back is olive green (Auxiliary Olive Green 47) shading to a slightly lighter tone on rump and upper tailcoverts (Olive Green 46). Rectrices are olive brown dorsally including the rachises (Olive Brown 28), olive green on lateral margins (Bunting Green 150), and show narrow (ca. 0.5 mm) pale yellow tips (lighter than Cream Color 54). Undersides of rectrices are light gray overall (near Glaucous 79) but darker towards the tip, whereas rachises are whitish. Wings are mostly olive brown with slightly darker (near Olive Brown 28) upper wing coverts, and exhibit three narrow but sharply defined pale yellow bars (Pale Sulphur Yellow 157). The width of the proximal two bars ranges between 1–1.5 mm, whereas that of the distal bar (greater coverts) is 1 mm. Primaries are brownish (Olive Brown 28) with a fine olive green edge on the outer webs, and secondaries and tertials are olive brown with the edge of outer webs and tips pale yellow (Pale Sulphur Yellow 157). Under wing coverts are pale yellow (Pale Sulphur Yellow 157) and the wrist is brownish dark gray (Vandyke Brown 221). Throat is unmarked and pale gray (near Light Smoke Gray 44), and the breast is light glaucous (Glaucous 80), transitioning smoothly to pale yellow (Pale Sulphur Yellow 157) on flanks and the middle and posterior abdomen. Eye-ring feathers are white, cheeks are Unsexed individuals
incognita (COP 11.3 7.4 3.7 3.6 57 49 16.0 6733)
cinerea (COP 11.4 7.6 3.1 3.6 61 52 16.5 22695)
cinerea (COP 10.1 6.7 3.2 3.7 63 51 15.9 6733)
Total culmen from base of bill at skull to bill tip.
Length from anterior edge of nares to bill tip.
Taken at anterior edge of nares.
mottled white and gray (Black Neutral Gray 82), whereas the lores and sides of the maxilla base are whitish (near Pale Neutral Gray 86). Soft parts from the label as follows: iris brown (“marrón”); bill and feet brownish gray (“pardo”). Wing length: 59.5 mm; tail at the insertion of central rectrices to the tip: 52 mm; tarsus: 16.3 mm; bill length from anterior edge of nares: 7.6 mm; bill length at base of skull: 12.3 mm; bill depth at anterior edge of nares: 3.3 mm; bill width at anterior edge of nares: 3.91 mm; enlarged testes; in fresh plumage, molt on P8.
Paratypes. (a) An unsexed individual in the Colección Ornitológica Phelps, Caracas (COP 6733) collected on 22 February 1940 by W. H. Phelps at La Sabana (=Ayapa), State of Zulia, Venezuela (ca. 10°02’N, 72°45’W; 1200 m elevation). This specimen was suggested by its collector (Phelps 1943) to possibly represent an immature male on the basis of its green upperparts, as in labeled immature males of the Amazonian taxon M. caniceps cinerea, in which adult males have gray upperparts. (b) An adult female in the Adolfo Pons ornithological collection, Caracas (Pons 3860) collected by M. Nava on 18 August 1951 at the type locality (1100 m elevation). The two paratype specimens and the holotype are quite uniform in coloration (Fig. 7).
Primary formula in the type series. In M. olallai incognita, P7-P8-P9 are the longest, nearly the same length, and P5 the shortest; P10 shorter than P6 (7=8=9>6>10>5).
Etymology. The feminine Latin word incognita means “unknown” or “untested”, and refers to the lack of recognition of this Perijá Myiopagis as a species distinct from M. caniceps (see Phelps 1943; Ginés et al. 1953) for over 70 years. The incognita specimens were not examined in the description of M. olallai (Coopmans & Krabbe 2000), and have been traditionally treated as vagrant individuals of M. caniceps. The name also indicates that this bird remains unknown in life.
Juvenile plumages and color morphs. Juvenile or immature individuals of M. caniceps cinerea (e.g. COP 39569, COP 47491) are intermediate to varying degrees between the adult male and the female plumage. The unsexed individual of that taxon (COP 47491) apparently was at an earlier stage of molt to the definitive male plumage. In both these immature specimens, the crown, nape and back are gray with some grayish-olive feathers; the crown patch is white but some feathers have dark gray tips, others grayish-olive tips; the belly, vent and wing markings are mixed pale yellow and white, the flanks olive gray or mixed yellow and gray. This variation in plumage likely led to the suggestion that M. caniceps has gray, green, and yellow morphs or “phases” in the males (e.g., Ginés et al. 1953; Restall et al. 2007). This supposition may have prevented an earlier recognition of the Perijá population (M. olallai incognita) as a distinct taxon from the sexually dimorphic M. caniceps. In particular, because the first specimen of M. olallai incognita (from 1940), which shows the diagnostic green upperparts of M. olallai, was initially considered an immature individual of M. caniceps due to its external appearance, it was considered to be an intermediate between the preconceived gray and green “typical phases” of M. caniceps (Phelps 1943). Nonetheless, Ginés et al. (1953) hypothesized that the Perijá population represented a taxon distinct from M. caniceps upon observing that the other two sexed adult specimens (from 1951) agreed well with the 1940 specimen that was identified as a juvenile by Phelps (1943), and that the three differed notably from specimens of M. caniceps (as described above). The green morph of M. caniceps illustrated in Restall et al. (2007, p. 393) was based on photographs and specimens of coopmansi/incognita.
description: Published as part of Cuervo, Andrés M., Stiles, F. Gary, Lentino, Miguel, Brumfield, Robb T. & Derryberry, Elizabeth P., 2014, Geographic variation and phylogenetic relationships of Myiopagis olallai (Aves: Passeriformes; Tyrannidae), with the description of two new taxa from the Northern Andes, pp. 1-24 in Zootaxa 3873 (1) on pages 14-16, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3873.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/287237