Megascops alagoensis, Dantas & Weckstein & Bates & Oliveira & Catanach & Aleixo, 2021

Dantas, Sidnei M., Weckstein, Jason D., Bates, John, Oliveira, Joiciane N., Catanach, Therese A. & Aleixo, Alexandre, 2021, Multi-character taxonomic review, systematics, and biogeography of the Blackcapped / Tawny-bellied Screech Owl (Megascops atricapilla-M. watsonii) complex (Aves: Strigidae), Zootaxa 4949 (3), pp. 401-444 : 426-427

Megascops alagoensis , sp. nov.

Alagoas Screech-Owl

corujinha-de-alagoas (Portuguese)

Megascops atricapilla ( Temminck, 1822) : Roda & Pereira (2006).

Corresponding to specimens in Clade E, M. alagoensis is restricted to isolated forest patches in the Atlantic Forest north of the São Francisco River, in the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco, Brazil .

Holotype: MZUSP 79947 . An unsexed individual, yellow iris, gray bill and feet, collected at Engenho Coimbra , Ibateguara, Alagoas State, Brazil (9ºS, 35º31’W) on 30 February 2003, and deposited at the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo ( MZUSP).

Paratypes: All collected at the same locality as the holotype . MZUSP 79948 , a male collected on 17 May 2004, 101 g ; MPEG 70437 , male, collected on 7 June 2010, testes 6x 6 mm, yellow eyes, greenish bill and feet, 105 g ; MPEG 70438 , male, collected on 10 June 2010, brown eyes, green bill, greyish-pink feet, 95 g .

Description of the holotype: A red morph, with a general red color of upperparts with darker longitudinal stripes across the back. Cap Red (37; Smithe 1975) with dark stripes, and a light brownish half-collar surrounding it. Chest reddish with dark red longitudinal and thin stripes, not forming a fishbone shape. Belly yellowish with dark brown longitudinal stripes with some horizontal stripes crossing them. Some whitish or white spots between the ventral horizontal stripes. Uppertail tawny brown with lighter cross-stripes, undertail gray with faint barring. Yellow iris, gray tarsi and bill. Measurements: Wing length 164.7 mm; tail length 72.3 mm; tarsus length 23.4 mm; bill length at anterior end of nostrils 13.4 mm; bill width 7.1 mm; bill height 11.2 mm.

Diagnosis: As Clade E birds, uniquely distinguished from all other taxa in the Megascops atricapilla-M. watsonii complex by eight fixed (invariable) synapomorphic (shared-derived) mutations (all transitions) in sequences of the mitochondrial genes ND2 (positions 234, 366, 508, and 571 in the supplied alignment; Supplementary file 3), COI (position 1047 in the supplied alignment; Supplementary file 1), and cytb (positions 462, 786 and 987 in the supplied alignment; Supplementary file 2). From a phenotypic perspective, no reliable morphological diagnosis exists with respect to other species in the complex. Vocally, no single character distinguishes M. alagoensis from all other taxa in the Megascops atricapilla-M. watsonii complex, although pairwise diagnosability tests supported reciprocal diagnoses in longsong pace with respect to M. usta (10.62±0.1 vs. 4.66±2.0 notes/sec) and its sister species, M. atricapilla (10.62±0.1 vs. 13.11±0.9 notes/sec).

Longsong as in other taxa of the Megascops atricapilla-M. watsonii complex, consisting of sequences of equally spaced notes delivered during variable periods of time, which gradually rise in volume until frequency stabilizes, lowering towards the end ( Fig. 8e ).

Variation in the type series: Red and brown morphs are found in the species. Three of the four individuals examined were red morphs and one was brown with a reddish wash on the chest. Two of the red morphs (MZUSP 79947 and MPEG 70437) had yellow irides and the brown one (MPEG 70438) had brown irides. This pattern also holds for M. atricapilla in which red morphs in general have a yellow iris, but there are also brown-eyed M. atricapilla red morphs known.

Etymology: We name the species after the Brazilian state of Alagoas, where it was recorded for the first time in February 2001 by Curtis A. Marantz (original tape recording available from the Macaulay Library under ML 127829: see Appendix) and where most of the known population remains ( Roda & Pereira 2006). The common names Alagoas Screech Owl (English) and Corujinha-de-Alagoas (Portuguese) also refer to that location.

Habitat: Atlantic Forest patches in Alagoas and in southern Pernambuco states in Eastern Brazil. This taxon is known from only four localities in Alagoas and one in Pernambuco ( Roda & Pereira 2006; Malacco 2013). It perches from undergrowth to canopy. Given the extensive forest fragmentation in the region, the species should be considered critically endangered, along with numerous other localized forest bird species found there ( Roda & Pereira 2006; Pereira et al. 2014).

Remarks: Average uncorrected pairwise mtDNA p-distances between M. alagoensis and the remaining species in the Megascops atricapilla-M. watsonii complex were as follows: 6.6% ( M. watsonii ); 3.2 % ( M. usta ); 2.3% ( M. stangiae ); 2.3 % ( M. ater ); and 1.5% ( M. atricapilla ).

In addition to the new taxa described above, we also recommend the treatment of the other lineages of the Megascops atricapilla-M. watsonii identified herein as species-level taxa, as follows:

Figures

FIGURE 8. Examples of longsong audio spectrograms from clades A‒F of the Megascops atricapilla-M. watsonii complex. (A) Clade A: Venezuela, Rio Cuyuni (Paul Schwartz, ML 59376); (B1) Clade B: Peru, Madre de Dios (Ted Parker III, ML 11496 = locality B26 in Fig. 1); (B2) Clade B: Venezuela, Rio Cassiquiare (Paul Schwartz, ML 59397 = locality B23 in Fig. 1); (C) Clade C: Brazil, Serra dos Carajás (Sidnei Dantas, XC 22514); (D) Clade D: Brazil, IPEAN, Belém (Paul Schwartz, ML 59395); (E) Clade E: Brazil, Usina Serra Grande, Ibateguara, Alagoas (Curtis Marantz, ML 127980); (F) Clade F: Brazil, Caetetus Ecological Station, São Paulo (Alexandre Aleixo, ML 94909). Each sonogram is typical of a given clade, except for Clade B, where a slow-paced song (less than 4 notes/s), and a fast-paced song (more than 6 notes/s) are shown. The slow-paced individuals are all from the south bank of the Amazon River, while most of the fast-paced Clade B specimens come from north of the Amazon, except for some samples from the lower Inambari and Rondonia areas of endemism in Brazil (see Fig. 9).