Proposal (567) to South American
Classification Committee
Change English name
of Drymophila caudata
With
the passing of Proposal 542 and following Isler et
al. (2012), the species name caudata is restricted to a very
rare taxon recorded only in the East Andes of Colombia. Previously, “Long-tailed Antbird” applied to
a very widespread taxon:
It
would be confusing to apply the name "Long-tailed Antbird" to a very
rare taxon with such a small range (compared to the old caudata)
and consistent with other recent SACC English name treatments to adopt a new
name.
This
proposal is divided into two parts, the first on whether or not to change the
name, and the second is a suggested name.
Part
A. Change the English name of narrowly defined D. caudata to
something besides “Long-tailed Antbird”. A YES vote means to change it to
something besides “Long-tailed”. A NO means to retain Long-tailed
for narrowly circumscribed D. caudata.
Part
B. Adopt “East Andean Antbird” as the English name of D.
caudata.
In
the latest Colombian checklist update paper (Donegan et al. 2012), the above map was included [deleted]. Only
the dark red and perhaps grey parts refer now to caudata. "East
Andean Antbird" was adopted for caudata instead of
retaining "Long-tailed", which was suggested by Isler et al. (2012).
“East
Andean Antbird” is a mildly clunky and somewhat boring name, but appropriate
and the best alternative we could come up with. A few relevant
factors towards this suggestion name appearing in Donegan et al. (2012) and
this proposal are as follows:
Other
alternatives are elusive. Sclater's
Antbird would honour the author of caudata but has limited traction
/ usage already in some publications as an alternative name for Myrmeciza
exsul so is not really "available". See the separate discussion in Proposal 556 on "Western
Antshrike" for reasons as to why Sclater's is not a good name to use here.
There
is a similar name in usage for a hummingbird (West Andean Emerald Chlorostilbon
melanorhynchus) - although this is often shortened to
"Western Emerald" including at SACC.
Few
other Thamnophilid antbirds occur in the East Andes. Only
"Parker's" and "Immaculate" occur in the Eastern Cordillera
and do not also have lowland distributions, per the McMullan et al.
field guide. [Bar-crested Antshrike, Uniform Antshrike, Plain
Antvireo, White-streaked Antvireo, Slaty Antwren, and Rufous-rumped Antwren
complete the set for the family, but none is an "Antbird".]. Newly
split klagesi also occurs in the East Andes but in the northernmost
part (Perijá and Norte de Santander) and also extends to the Mérida Andes
so is not an endemic to the range.
None
of the species listed in the previous bullet are East Andes endemics.
"East Andean Antbird" would appropriately label the only Thamnophilid
antbird endemic to the region.
Isler
et al. (2012) also refer to the range of this species as being of Magdalena
distribution, but “Magdalena Antbird” is now used for Myrmeciza
palliata so is also not available."
Another
possibility as a vernacular name would be Streak-breasted Antbird, referring to
the stronger striations on this species compared to congeners, but having both
"Streak-headed" (D. striaticeps) and Streak-breasted in this
group - for two species which both have streaking in both areas - could be
really confusing for field observers.
References:
Isler, M. L., A. M.
Cuervo, G. A. Bravo, & R. T. Brumfield. 2012. An integrative approach to
species-level systematics reveals the depth of diversification in an Andean
thamnophilid, the Long-tailed Antbird. Condor 114: 571–583
Donegan, T.M., Quevedo,
A., Salaman, P. & McMullan, M. 2012. Revision of the status of bird species
occurring or reported in Colombia 2012. Conservación
Colombiana 17: 4-14. http://www.proaves.org/proaves/images/RCC/Con_Col_17_1-14_Actualizacion_Listado.pdf
Anonymous, November
2012
_______________________________________________________________________
Comments
from Remsen:
“YES on both A and B. I was about to write such a proposal when
Donegan’s version arrived. Part A is a “must” in my
opinion. Standard operating procedure in cases of taxonomic splits
is to retain the “parent” name only if it applies to one of the daughter
species that is much more widespread than the others. Retention of
the parent name for one of the daughters creates subsequent confusion for
obvious reasons. Although there is no hard rule for determining when
to abandon the parent name, the case of D. caudata is not a
close call. As Donegan’s map shows, post-split daughter D.
caudata represents only a tiny fraction of the range of pre-split
broadly defined D. caudata. “Long-tailed Antbird” is
best applied to the group as a whole and abandoned for any of its daughter
species. As for Part B, I think Donegan’s “East Andean” is a “lesser
of evils” compared to the alternatives, so I’ll go for it unless someone
creative proposes a better name.”
Comments
from Robbins:
“A. YES, to a name change. B. I’m fine with either East
Andean or Streak-breasted; I’m not bothered by the potential confusion of the
latter name with Streak-headed. If we are truly concerned with that similarity
then we would need to change English names for a plethora of species, e.g.,
tanagers!
Comments
from Mort Isler:
“A little bell when off in my head when we were recommending English names in
the D. caudata paper. It seemed inappropriate to apply Long-tailed
Antbird to a geographically restricted population, but we thought we had to
maintain the name. Thank you for the correction.
“As
for a replacement, East Andean is troublesome, not only because it is “clunky”
but especially because northern end of the Eastern Cordillera is occupied
by D. klagesi. I believe that Streak-breasted, the
alternative suggested by Anonymoys, is more appropriate. I agree with
Mark that potential confusion of Streak-breasted with Streak-headed should not
be a deterrent.”
Comments
from Stiles: “YES
to A; I have no strong feelings regarding B, but given that klagesi
is really rather marginal as an “East Andean” bird and that caudata is
in fact endemic to the main range of the Eastern Andes of Colombia, I am
comfortable with “East Andean” for this species, in spite of a general dislike
of English trinomials (i.e., YES).”
Comments
from Zimmer:
“YES to Part A. I definitely agree with the reasoning that the
“parent” name should only be retained for one of the “daughter” species when
one daughter species has a range that overwhelms that of the others, and
therefore, is the taxon popularly linked with the English
name. Clearly, that is not the case here, so we need to make a
change. As for Part B, I could go along
with either “East Andean” or “Streak-breasted” although I’m not wild about
either. The former, as Anonymous noted in the Proposal, is “clunky
and boring”, whereas the latter does invite some confusion with Streak-headed
Antbird. However, given that we have managed to survive the
potential confusion created by having Spot-crowned, Spot-breasted and Streak-crowned
antvireos, I would just as soon go for “Streak-breasted Antbird” for D.
caudata.”
Comments
from Schulenberg: "Long-tailed
Antbird" should not be used for the narrow caudata; all are in
agreement there. "East Andean" * is * clunky, and
"Streak-breasted" * is * confusingly similar to
"Streak-headed" (striaticeps). I'm grasping here - what about
"Oriente Antbird"? "Bamboo Antbird"? (yes, all Drymophila are
in bamboo, but so what?)”
Additional
comments from Stiles: “If ‘East Andean’ is deemed too
"clunky" for nominate caudata,
"Streak-breasted" seems livable - it is the member of this complex
with the most heavily streaked breast and so is accurate, even if not wholly
diagnostic.”