Proposal (436) to South American Classification Committee

Recognize a new genus Drymotoxeres for Campylorhamphus pucherani

Effect on SACC: Campylorhamphus pucherani would change to Drymotoxeres pucherani. The linear classification of this species would change.

Background & New information (much of this was copied from Claramunt et al. 2010 --RTB):

As part of a project to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of all species in the Furnariidae (including the Dendrocolaptinae) from DNA sequences (mitochondrial and nuclear), extensive taxon sampling allowed Claramunt et al. (2010) to determine conclusively that Campylorhamphus pucherani is not part of the Campylorhamphus clade. Instead, with high support, Campylorhamphus pucherani is sister to Drymornis bridgesii (see molecular tree from their study below).

Claramunt et al. (2010) considered two taxonomic treatments: 1) erecting a new genus for Campylorhamphus pucherani (proposed here), and 2) transferring Campylorhamphus pucherani to Drymornis. They performed a morphometric analysis and demonstrated that transferring C. pucherani to Drymornis would produce a genus that is uncharacteristically morphologically heterogeneous relative to other dendrocolaptine genera. Moreover, placing C. pucherani in its own genus is consistent with ecological and behavioral differences between C. pucherani and Drymornis. C. pucherani inhabits the Andean cloud forest, one of the most humid terrestrial habitats on the continent, whereas Drymornis bridgesi inhabits dry forests in the Chaco-Espinal lowlands. In addition, whereas C. pucherani forages on trees, D. bridgesii is the only woodcreeper specialized in ground foraging (Marantz et al. 2003). Therefore, C. pucherani and Drymornis represent different adaptive morphotypes within the dendrocolaptine radiation.

The type species of Campylorhamphus is C. falcularius. The original species description for Campylorhamphus pucherani placed it in Xiphorhynchus. Because no name was available for C. pucherani, Claramunt et al. (2010) proposed the name Drymotoxeres. From the Greek drymos (woods) and toxeres (furnished with a bow) treated as a noun, referring, respectively, to the habitat and the thin bow-shaped bill of D. pucherani. The name is masculine.

Change to linear classification:

Drymotoxeres pucherani should be maintained in its current position in the linear sequence, before Campylorhamphus, but Drymornis should be transferred to a position between Lepidocolaptes and Drymotoxeres, to make the linear sequence consistent with phylogenetic relationships.

Fig. 1. Maximum-likelihood phylogram (-logL = 12856) from a combined partitioned analysis of COII, ND3, and BF7 genes depicting evolutionary relationships among strong-billed woodcreepers (specimen data in Table 1). Numbers above branches are bootstrap support values of the maximum-likelihood (before slash) and parsimony (after slash) analyses.

References

Claramunt, S., E. P. Derryberry, R. T. Chesser, A. Aleixo, and R. T. Brumfield. 2010. Polyphyly of Campylorhamphus with the description of a new genus for C. pucherani. Auk 127: 430-439.

MARANTZ, C. A., A. ALEIXO, L. R. BEVIER, AND M. A. PATTEN. 2003. Family Dendrocolaptidae (woodcreepers). Pp. 358-447 in "Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 8. Broadbills to tapaculos." (J. del Hoyo et al., eds.). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Robb T. Brumfield, April 2010

Comments from Robbins: “YES, although I would have been quite fine with including pucherani in Drymornis.”

Comments from Cadena: “YES, with some reluctance. I would rather have lumped this species with Drymornis, which would have resulted in a genus including two sister species. Such classification would convey more information about phylogenetic relationships than one in which there are two different monotypic genera. However, all these things are sort of a matter of taste, and the authors have good points about morphological heterogeneity within and among genera.”