Kleinothraupis, Burns, Kevin J., Unitt, Philip & Mason, Nicholas A., 2016

Burns, Kevin J., Unitt, Philip & Mason, Nicholas A., 2016, A genus-level classification of the family Thraupidae (Class Aves: Order Passeriformes), Zootaxa 4088 (3), pp. 329-354 : 339

14. Kleinothraupis , new genus ( Fig. 3 )

Type species. Arremon atropileus Lafresnaye, 1842 (as “ atro-pileus,” currently Hemispingus atropileus ).

Included species. Kleinothraupis reyi (Berlepsch, 1895) , K. atropileus (Lafresnaye, 1842) , K. calophrys (Sclater & Salvin, 1876) , and K. parodii (Weske & Terborgh, 1974) (currently recognized as Hemispingus reyi , H. atropileus , H. calophrys , and H. parodii ).

Diagnosis. Morphologically, three of these species ( K. atropileus , K. calophrys , and K. parodii ) share a superciliary stripe. K. reyi lacks this character, but has similar, carotenoid-based plumage (Shultz & Burns 2013). The sequence of K. reyi reported in Burns et al. (2014) is only a 200 base pair fragment of cyt b sequenced from a toe pad. Thus, we have less confidence in the placement of K. reyi in this genus, but tentatively place it here because of its carotenoid coloration, the topology of the phylogenetic tree ( Fig. 3 ), and the high posterior probability supporting this clade. Cyt b is the only gene sampled from all four species in this clade, and the 200 base pair section in common does not show any unreversed synapomorphies. Two species, K. atropileus and K. calophrys , were both sampled for ND2 and have three unreversed synapomorphies (numbered by their position in the gene alignment): C114A, A810T, and A991G. Cladistically, we define this genus as the descendants of the common ancestor of Kleinothraupis calophrys and K. atropileus .

Etymology. We are pleased to name this genus for Nedra K. Klein (1951–2001), an avian systematist and evolutionary biologist (Hackett 2002, 2004). Nedra published several papers involving tanagers (Seutin et al. 1994; Burns et al. 2002, 2003), though she was probably best known for her work on wood-warblers ( Parulidae ) (e.g., Klein & Brown 1994; Klein et al. 2004). Given that she worked on both tanagers and warblers, and given the morphological similarity of the species in this genus to warblers, we are pleased to name this genus in her honor. The genus name is formed from Nedra’s surname (Klein) and the Greek θραυπίς. The name Kleinothraupis is feminine in gender. The only specific or subspecific epithet affected by reclassification in Kleinothraupis is atropileus intermedius Carriker, 1934, listed by Storer (1970) as a synonym of Hemispingus a. auricularis; if recognized, it becomes K. a. intermedia . The name atropileus is a noun in apposition and invariable.

Comments. The clade containing Hemispingus reyi , H. atropileus , H. calophrys , and H. parodii is strongly supported (PP = 0.98) and is the sister clade to a large clade containing 24 species in eight currently recognized genera. Unless a broad genus that includes both clades is recognized, a new generic name is needed for the first clade ( Hemispingus reyi , H. atropileus , H. calophrys , H. parodii ). Accordingly, we provide Kleinothraupis for this purpose.

Some classifications (Hilty et al. 2011; Dickinson & Christidis 2014) treat the two subspecies of Kleinothraupis atropileus (K. a. atropileus and K. a. auricularis) as species ( K. atropileus and K. auricularis), though Clements et al. (2015) treated them as subspecies. Therefore, although our sample represents K. a. auricularis, we list it as K. atropileus . García-Moreno & Fjeldså (2003) sequenced ND2 from both forms and found K. auricularis to be sister to a clade containing K. atropileus and K. parodii . Thus, regardless of whether these taxa are treated as subspecies or species, both belong in Kleinothraupis .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Maximum clade credibility tree from the Bayesian analyses of Burns et al. (2014). Subfamilies Sporophilinae and Poospizinae shown. Labeling and format as in Fig. 1.