Proposal (859) to South American Classification Committee

Create an English name for Campylopterus diamantinesis

Implementation of SACC proposal 755A has been delayed because I can’t talk anyone into doing a proposal for a suitable English name. So, to at least start the process, I propose “Diamantina Sabrewing”, in reference to the species name and Ruschi’s type locality. A parallel situation for a taxon with a roughly similar distribution is Diamantina Tapaculo (Scytalopus diamantinensis). Diamantina refers to the municipality in Minas Gerais. From Wikipedia: “Diamantina is a statistical micro-region that includes the following municipalities: Diamantina, Datas, Felício dos Santos, Gouveia, Presidente Kubitschek, São Gonçalo do Rio Preto, Senador Modestino Gonçalves, and Couto de Magalhães de Minas.”

Here is the distribution map from Lopes et al. (2017 --- the Zootaxa paper in which the new species, C. calcirupicola, was described).

A YES vote endorses Diamantina Sabrewing. A NO vote means you have a better idea or like one of the alternatives below, AND will be willing to do a counterproposal. I am not particularly enamored with “Diamantina Sabrewing” so alternatives welcomed. Possibilities gleaned from Lopes et al. (2017) include “Campo Rupestre Sabrewing” (in reference to its habitat; I like this one), “Espinhaco Sabrewing” (it is restricted to the highest elevations of the Espinhaço Range, but we would have to drop the cedilla and thus increase likelihood of chronic mispronunciation as “Espinacko”; I still like it.), and “Ruschi’s Sabrewing” (to honor the describer). I floated these possibilities informally to SACC and associates, and all responses received favored Diamantina Sabrewing.

Van Remsen, June 2020

Comments from Jaramillo: “YES, sounds good to me.”

Comments from Zimmer: “YES for adopting Diamantina Sabrewing as the English name for C. diamantinensis. My initial reaction was to favor the offered alternative of “Campo Rupestre Sabrewing”, which nicely reflects the habitat to which the species is restricted. However, given that we went with the name of “Outcrop Sabrewing” for the recently described C. calcirupicola, it seems that the two names could prove confusing rather than clarifying, conjuring, as they both do, open country or woodland with clusters of rocks or boulders. “Campo Rupestre Sabrewing” is also a mouthful, whereas “Diamantina Sabrewing” rolls off the tongue more readily, and accurately describes the meat of this species’ range. We also, as noted in the Proposal, have the precedent of Diamantina Tapaculo, a species with a similar limited distribution. I would rank “Espinhaco Tapaculo” as a distant 3^rd, and would not consider naming it after Ruschi, given his now rather well documented history for scientific fraud.”