Phylloscopus suaramerdu Rheindt &amp; Prawiradilaga &amp; Ashar &amp; Lee &amp; Wu &amp; Ng 2020, species nova
Creators: name: Rheindt, Frank E.
name: Prawiradilaga, Dewi M.
name: Ashar, Hidayat
name: Lee, Geraldine W. X.
name: Wu, Meng Yue
name: Ng, Nathaniel S. R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Aves
Passeriformes
Phylloscopidae
Phylloscopus
Phylloscopus suaramerdu

description: <b>SM5:</b> <i>Phylloscopus suaramerdu</i>, species nova <b>(Peleng Leaf-Warbler;</b> <b>urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:ED7A42E3-0F42-400B-8195-9E204EEFE169</b> <b>)</b> Frank E. Rheindt, Dewi M. Prawiradilaga, Hidayat Ashari, Suparno, Nathaniel S. R. Ng MZB.Ornit.34.440 (fig. S8); adult male collected 20 Dec 2013 above Kokolomboi village (~ 950m) on Peleng Island (S 01⁰ 17.561 '; E 122⁰ 52.520 '). Collected by the Rheindt / LIPI field party, including tissue samples from breast muscle and liver; skin prepared by Suparno; field number Pel14; some molt; low fat; weight 8.5g; wing length 5.6cm; wing spread 15.5cm; total length 10.3cm; bill 1cm; tail 4.2cm; tarsus 2.1cm. The crown (from forehead to nape) is cold brown (2.5Y 2/2), delimited below by a narrow long white supercilium from bill base to napeside. Lores dark greyish brown (2.5Y 3/1) extending to just behind eye in the form of an eyestripe cutting through a broken white eye ring formed by small feathers peripheral to the eye. Black rictal bristles. Ear coverts and malar, facial and moustachial regions show white-and-dusky grizzling. Most of upperparts, including mantle, scapulars and rump, are mid-olive (5Y 4/4), while remiges are distinctly darker-olive (5Y 3/2) but have paler olive outer edging concolorous with mantle. Upperwing coverts have outer webs largely concolorous with mantle and inner webs concolorous with remiges. Rectrices are dark olive above (5Y 3/2) with brighter basal edging roughly concolorous with mantle, and have a more silvery sheen below (5Y 5/1). The white chin and throat are characterized by sporadic dusky speckles and lemon streaks increasing towards the lower throat, and grading into a fully lemon to sulphur yellow breast and belly (5Y 9/12). The yellow on the breast and belly has an olive-mottled appearance because of olive feather tips (5Y 4/4), especially pronounced towards the flanks, and white feather bases, especially pronounced towards the abdomen. The vent is solid lemon-yellow (5Y8/7). Iris dark-brown; bill black. Tarsus, toes and claws pinkish-grey with toepads paler yellowish. A small <i>Phylloscopus</i> leaf-warbler typical of the <i>P. poliocephalus</i> leaf-warbler radiation from across Australo-Papua and Wallacea. Notable for its lack of both a central crown stripe and wingbars, and its lemon-yellow underparts contrasting with a white throat. As is typical for this cryptic genus, bioacoustic distinctions between this species and its neighbors are pronounced and possibly more important than morphological differences. Nevertheless, the new species differs strikingly from all other Wallacean members of the <i>P. poliocephalus</i> species complex in a number of plumage features. <i>P. suaramerdu</i> is distinguished from all other <i>Phylloscopus</i> residents of the Sulawesi sub-region (including <i>P. sarasinorum, P. nesophilus</i> and the new species from Taliabu described below) by its white (not yellowish) supercilium and throat, and by its grey-and- white mottled sides of face (versus yellow-and-grey or unmottled appearance). It differs additionally from <i>P. sarasinorum</i> in the lack of a pale central crown stripe, more olive- mottled breast, and lack of white in tail. It differs additionally from <i>P. nesophilus</i> in its greater contrast between crown and mantle color, and – in particular from the geographically proximate eastern and south-eastern Sulawesi populations – in its paler yellow lower underparts. For differences from the new species from Taliabu, see below in SM6. <i>P. suaramerdu</i> generally differs from remaining members of the <i>P. poliocephalus</i> complex in the combination of dusky-and-white facial grizzling and a paler yellow, mottled breast. Specifically, the new species differs additionally from <i>P. poliocephalus giulianettii</i> (Central Papua) and <i>P. ceramensis</i> (Seram) in its lack of wingbars and lack of a central crown stripe; from <i>P. p. poliocephalus</i> (West Papua), <i>P. waterstradti</i> (Obi, Bacan) and <i>P. everetti</i> (Buru) in its lack of wingbars and browner (versus greyish) crown; from <i>P. floris</i> (Flores) in its white (versus intensely yellow) throat and less bright olive upperparts; and from <i>P.</i> <i>presbytes</i> (Timor) in the lack of a central crown stripe. The new species name is derived from “suara merdu” in Bahasa Indonesia, translating as “melodious voice”, referring to the pleasing vocalizations of this bird that FER heard hours before the first individual was seen, allowing for predictions prior to visual confirmation that this would be a new <i>Phylloscopus</i> leaf-warbler to science. The expression is treated as a noun in apposition. <b>Individual, sex and age-related variation within the taxon</b> Only one adult male (the holotype) is available, but observations and photos of additional adult specimens suggest limited intra-specific variation. During a visit to the highlands of Peleng between 23-30 March 2009, FER and Filip Verbelen frequently encountered this species at elevations between 700-900m (<i>49</i>). When hiking up to these elevations for the first time and hearing the melodious warble of this taxon in the distance, its superficial vocal resemblance to other members of the Wallacean <i>Phylloscopus</i> radiation prompted FER to predict that this would be a new leaf-warbler taxon long before they laid their eyes on it. Once they first saw it, it was noticeable for its unusual behavior of frequently climbing along larger branches and trunks of trees in the manner of a treecreeper (<i>Certhia</i>). On our collecting expedition to Peleng between 18-23 Dec 2013, the species was less commonly encountered (<i>19</i>), probably because of seasonality. This new leaf-warbler is restricted to the highland forests of western Peleng in the Banggai Archipelago at elevations above 700m, reaching the highest island altitude above 1000m (fig. S2). Its presence on other islands in the Banggai Archipelago must be in serious doubt because only one of them, the small island of Bangkulu, slightly exceeds 600m in elevation, of which only 5 ha of land lie above 600m, still well below the lowest known elevational occurrence of the new species. Beyond the Banggai Archipelago, <i>P. suaramerdu</i> is replaced by Sulawesi Leaf-Warbler <i>P. nesophilus</i> on the adjacent peninsula of Sulawesi to the west as well as by another new species (see below) on the Sula Archipelago to the east. The conservation situation of <i>P. suaramerdu</i> must be equally dire as that of the new Peleng Fantail <i>Rhipidura habibiei</i>, with a natural extent of occurrence not much larger than 25,000 ha (fig. S2), of which at least ~40% appears to have been seriously degraded or destroyed by now. For more detailed information, see SM2. For a detailed <b>taxonomic rationale</b>, see SM6.
description: Published as part of <i>Rheindt, Frank E., Prawiradilaga, Dewi M., Ashar, Hidayat, Lee, Geraldine W. X., Wu, Meng Yue &amp; Ng, Nathaniel S. R., 2020, A lost world in Wallacea: Description of a montane archipelagic avifauna (supplement), pp. 1-104 in Science 36</i> on pages 33-37, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3608758
description: {"references": ["49. F. E. Rheindt, F. Verbelen, D. D. Putra, A. Rahman, M. Indrawan, New biogeographic records in the avifauna of Peleng Island (Sulawesi, Indonesia), with taxonomic notes on some endemic taxa. Bull. Br. Ornithol. Club 130, 181 - 207 (2010).", "19. F. E. Rheindt, D. M. Prawiradilaga, S. Suparno, H. Ashari, P. R. Wilton, New and significant island records, range extensions and elevational extensions of birds in eastern Sulawesi, its nearby satellites, and Ternate. Treubia 41, 61 - 90 (2014)."]}