(Aves: Charadriiformes) by of Ornithology, Previously the Chaotic Ostralegus Longi
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Multivariate assessment of the phenetic affinities of Australasian oystercatchers (Aves: Charadriiformes) by Allan J. Baker Department of Ornithology, Royal Ontario Museum, and Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Abstract tion in morphological characters (Baker, 1975). The Australian taxa have suffered similar treat- Phenetic affinities of Australasian oystercatchers were eluci- dated multivariate statistical of seven The first by analysis morpho- ment, as illustrated below. oystercatcher metric characters taken from skins. Nineteen museum opera- to receive formal recognition was a pied bird, tional taxonomie units (OTUs), representing all the currently described Vieillot as and most of the subordinate by (1817) Haematopus longi- recognized species taxa, were used to calibrate morphological variation in Australasian rostris. Three further pied birds from northwestern the by the Haematopus against range displayed Haematopo- South Australia, New Wales and Queensland were didae. The rather of variation homogeneous nature among H. described respectively as picatus King, 1826, OTUs was not well suited for analysis by hierarchical but ordination method H. australianus H. clustering methods, a non-hierarchical Gould, 1838 and longirostris utilizing both principal components and nonmetric scaling Mathews mattingleyi Mathews, 1912. (1912) syn- produced excellent summaries of the similarity matrices. onymized H. australianus with the nominate H. The South Island Pied Oystercatcher (H. o. finschi) of New Zealand clustered tightly with the Eurasian H. ostra- l. longirostris, and restricted picatus as a sub- and thus be of Palaearctic All the legus seems to origin. of H. The he species longirostris. following year remaining Australasian taxa grouped in another cluster with these taxa under H. the New World and it that the submerged ostralegus longi- forms, appears likely Australian Pied Oystercatcher will have to be split from the rostris Vieillot, ostensibly because of the paucity Comments the ostralegus group as a separate species. on of material then available by which good sub- and of taxonomy zoogeography the family are postponed species could be All until a current study of a much larger data set is completed. recognized (Mathews, 1913). Australian pied birds were subsequently lumped “It cannot be but to to divers mischievous any study have under H. ostralegus Linnaeus, 1758, by Mathews systems of nomenclature simultaneously co-existent in the & Iredale (1921), and no subordinate taxa were same dominion.” Milligan (1911). designated. Mathews (1927) assigned longirostris INTRODUCTION of and picatus as subspecies H. ostralegus, but Australasian stercatchers distributed Peters considered H. oy are widely (1934) only o. longirostris around the of sea shores New Zealand, Australia, as valid. Oliver (1955) concluded that specimens most islands in Torres Straits, Misima, Kai and from New South Wales, northern New Zealand the Islands Aru Islands, and the southern coast of New Guinea and Chatham were all referable to one Condon (Condon, 1975). The affinities and hence the species, H. longirostris. (1975) relegated of H. number of taxa that should be recognized from longirostris to a subspecies ostralegus, but this region have been subject to lively debate in noted that "the taxonomy is very confused and the past, and remain largely unresolved today. some authors are inclined to follow Oliver". I have outlined previously the chaotic nomen- Similar taxonomie confusion is apparent for the melanistic The clatural history of the New Zealand taxa, and have oystercatchers of Australia. original the suggested that this instability was due primarily description of Sooty Oystercatcher was given of varia- to an essentially typological assessment by Gould (1845) as Haematopus fuliginosus. BIJDRAGEN TOT DE DIERKUNDE, 47 (2) - 1977 157 erected the Castelnau & Ramsay ( 1877) a new species, characters and/or the taxa is dependent on H. for melanistic of variation If the of ophthalmicus (lapsus calumni), a range spanned. placement with around the taxa in such is to be reliable and specimen a large fleshy patch eye a space a repeat- from Bountiful Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. able representation of their phenetic affinities, In Mathews referred both and then it follows that 1912 fuliginosus as many taxa as possible ophthalmicus to subspecies of the New Zealand should be treated in the analysis. I have used all H. unicolor 1844 and erected the data available to and H. liatus oystercatcher Forster, me, only pal bernieri for a new subspecies H. u. a specimen galapagensis, H. p. pitanay and H. p. durnfordi from Bernier Island in Australia. the in Western On are not represented. As some of the taxa used basis of he unicolor this supposed priority synonymized study are actually represented by individuals, with niger in 1913, but retained the above sub- I have followed Sneath & Sokal (1973) hereafter species. Mathews & Iredale (1921) reversed this in employing the terminology operational taxo- decision and submerged all taxa under H. uni- nomie units (OTUs). color. In 1927 Mathews reinstated juliginosus, The OTUs used in this study, the number of and bernieri as of H. in each and their in the ophthalmicus subspecies species geographic range unicolor, but Peters (1934) rejected unicolor as a breeding season are given in table I. The nomen- H. clature checklists species epithet and recognized only f. fuligi- used is that of current and con- nosus and H. from Australia. notes taxonomie decisions For f. ophthalmicus no on my part. These latter have endured and used heuristic and taxa since are purposes, to provide a yardstick by Condon by (1975). which distances among OTUs can be judged, I The cluttering of the literature with numerous have included hybridizing forms as separate OTUs. is For and nomenclatural changes perhaps understandable example, the melanistic H. u. unicolor the in and H. the context of the nature relative recency pied u. reischeki hybridize so extensively in of ornithological discovery in Australasia. How- northern New Zealand that they might well be if is be made the in if the ever, progress to beyond point lumped together a single taxon extent where taxonomie decisions reflect little than of is the final arbiter. more gene exchange Conversely, the personal preferences of their proponents, it is although H. bachmani hybridizes with H. palliatus clear that a substantive study of the systematic in lower California, the hybrid population (here will have made. H. relationships of the taxa to be referred to as p. frazeri) is relatively restricted The taxonomie outlined above stems in distribution and thus the of the instability integrity gene principally from an inadequate assessment of the pools of the parental species is essentially main- tained. affinities of allopatric taxa, especially those from the Old and New Worlds. This paper presents Selection of characters a multivariate analysis of the phenetic affinities of Australasian oystercatchers, based on external mor- Although numerical taxonomists such as Sneath & skin used advocate the of phometric characters traditionally by Sokal (1973) use large suites of avian characters 60 that simi- systematists. (commonly or more) so larity coefficients will have reasonable confidence MATERIALS AND METHODS in this levels, study I have used only the seven Selection of taxa for comparative study external morphological characters traditionally Because the phenetic affinities of Australasian used by avian systematists in assessing the affini- need be in the broader ties of related I Haematopus to cast per- closely taxa. While acknowledge of the of variation that the of small number of characters spective range morphological use a may in the the selection of taxa for decrease the of the statistical Haematopodidae, reliability results, my is mul- comparative study most important. Where intention is not to construct a numerical taxonomy methods this but rather tivariate statistical are used, sampling as such, to obtain a more complete eval- factor becomes critical because the configuration uation of the morphometric information contained of the multidimensional the in character suite. The characters used space defined by a traditional 158 A. J. BAKER - PHENETIC AFFINITIES OF OYSTERCATCHERS TABLE I OTUs used in this their sizes and study, sample geographic ranges. x OTU » Geographie range in the breeding season ) no. OTU designation Abbreviation 9~9 ï~è 1 Haematopus ostralegus malacophaga H.o.mala. 18 17 Iceland and Faeroe Islands occidentalis H.o.occi. British Isles 2 H. o. 22 21 H.o.ostr. 40 east to and south to 3 H. o. ostralegus 37 Europe Arkhangelsk Spain and Baltic Sea; coasts of Asia Minor, Mace- donia, the Black and Caspian Seas H.o 4 H. o. longipes long. 10 1 Inland southern and eastern Russia and western Siberia H. H.o.fins. 18 20 South Island of New Zealand 5 o. finschi 6 H. o. osculans H.o.oscu. 5 11 Coasts of northeastern Russia from eastern Siberia to northern China 7 H.o.rost. 41 New Guinea south Australia to Tas- H. o. longirostris 45 through mania 8 H. chathamensis H.chat. 14 14 Chatham Islands H. H.f.fuli. Coasts of Australia 9 fuliginosus fuliginosus 21 28 except ophthalmicus range 10 H. f. ophthalmicus H.f.opht. 3 4 Northern Australia coast from Cape York Peninsula west to Kimberleys 11 H. unicolor unicolor H u.unie. 20 21 New Zealand reischeki of Zealand 12 H. u. Hu.reis. 17 17 North Island New H 13 H. moquini moquini m.moqu. 8 8 Coasts of South Africa from Natal to South- west Africa 14 meadewaldoi H.m. mead. 1 1 Eastern Islands H. m. Canary (probably extinct) 15 H. palliatus palliatus H.p.pall. 4 11 Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North and Central South America California south 16 H. p. frazeri H.p.fraz. 11 18 Lower to Jalisco from about 17 H. ater H.ater 14 29 Coasts of South America 10°S on about Falkland the west to 43°S on the east; Islands 18 H. bachmani H.bach. 17 15 Aleutian Islands through Alaska west to Lower California 19 H.