Proposal (575) to South American Classification Committee

Change English name of Geotrygon purpurata

Geotrygon purpurata is now recognised as a separate species from G. saphirina with the passing of this proposal 566.

Quoting from Donegan & Salaman 2012: "Hellmayr & Conover (1942) used the name Purple Quail-Dove, which is appropriate given that this is the most purple Geotrygon. However, this name seems to have been overlooked in the recent literature in favour of Indigo-crowned (e.g. Ridgely & Greenfield 2001, Restall et al. 2006)."

"Purple" for purpurata is a nice name and transliteration, which mirrors "Sapphire". It is not clear why it was seen as necessary to find a new name when these were split. However, "Indigo-crowned" has essentially universal traction over the last decade and a bit, for authors who followed Ridgely's split (of which there are a reasonably large number).

"Purple" was put on the SACC baseline following passing of proposal 566. A YES vote on this proposal would change this to Ridgely & Tudor's "Indigo-crowned".

References are in Proposal 566.

Thomas Donegan, March 2013

Comments by Remsen: “NO. I like Thomas’s rationale. This is the “purple-est ” of the quail-doves, it was the short and sweet name used by Hellmayr and Conover, and it mirrors the scientific name. Its cap may be more indigo than that of saphirina, but “Indigo-capped” sounds a little flatulent to me.”

Comments from Stiles: “NO. I see nothing wrong with “Purple”: it is descriptive and accurate, goes with the Latin name, and is shorter and more easily remembered.”

Comments from Zimmer: NO. “Purple” is straightforward, simple, and mirrors “Sapphire”. I see no reason to substitute a longer, more complex, and difficult to remember (was that Indigo-crowned or Indigo-capped?) name.”

Comments from Stotz: “NO. Not thrilled to death with this, but go for it because it has been the English name in use for this taxon for the last decade.  Before this it didn’t have an English name despite the use of Purplish by Hellmayr.”