Proposal (447) to South American Classification Committee
Change
English names in Muscisaxicola griseus
and M. alpinus
Chesser (2000) found that broadly defined Muscisaxicola
alpinus was a paraphyletic species: the alpinus
group of Colombia and Ecuador and the subspecies griseus, of Peru and
Bolivia, are not sister taxa (Note 102).
The English name “Plain-capped Ground-Tyrant” was used for broadly
defined M. alpinus by Meyer de Schauensee
(1966) and all subsequent references.
Thus, a new English name was needed for the “new” species, griseus.
Rather than create a new name for griseus, Ridgely and Greenfield (2001)
coined a new name for M. alpinus “Paramo Ground-Tyrant” but retained “Plain-capped
Ground-Tyrant” M. griseus, and this
has been followed by Gill and Wright (2006).
To retain the long-standing association between alpinus and the
Plain-capped, Dickinson (2003) retained Plain-capped for narrowly defined M. alpinus and coined “Taczanowski's
Ground-Tyrant” for M. griseus in honor of the person who described the
taxon. The current SACC classification
followed Dickinson, as have HBW and Birds of Peru (Schulenberg et al.).
This proposal is to change the English names to
follow Ridgely-Greenfield names.
Recommendation: We recommend a NO on this proposal (thus continuing to use SACC
names) primarily because the Ridgely-Greenfield names unfortunately cause
confusion by using the name “Plain-capped” for griseus even it was alpinus
that had been called Plain-capped name in all literature 1966 to 2001.
[The various merits of the names themselves
with respect to the taxa are not the catalyst for the proposal. “Paramo” is a good habitat-based name for alpinus, and “Taczanowski’s is an
appropriate name that recognizes an important figure in Peruvian ornithology
and the person who described the species.]
References: see SACC Biblio site.
Richard E. Gibbons and Van Remsen, August 2010
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Comments from Stotz:
“NO. The switchover of Plain-capped from
alpinus to griseus is a problem, but so is the retention of Plain-capped for a
narrower alpinus. Normally (but not always) we change the
English name when there is a significant change in the taxon in question. In this case because of the two different
solutions to the name issue developed by Ridgely and Greenfield, and by
Dickinson, we have a solution that doesn’t require us developing a new name for
either taxon: we call griseus
Taczanowski’s Ground-Tyrant and alpinus
Paramo Ground-Tyrant.”
Comments from Robbins:
“NO. Changing the name would cause
further confusion, and as the proposal indicates, we have appropriate English
names.”