Neophema, Salvadori, 1891

Smith, Brian Tilston, Thom, Gregory & Joseph, Leo, 2024, Revised Evolutionary And Taxonomic Synthesis For Parrots (Order: Psittaciformes) Guided By Phylogenomic Analysis, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2024 (468), pp. 1-87 : 57

Neophema and Neopsephotus

The seven species long placed in Neophema are the smallest-bodied Platycercinae and have long tails. One group of four species ( chrysostoma , elegans , petrophila , chrysogaster ) for which the genus-group name Neonanodes is available, is predominantly yellow-green with species-specific patterns of shades of blue about the face, forehead and wing. A further pair of species ( pulchella , splendida ), one of which, pulchella , is the type species of Neophema , have distinctive blue faces and red in the wings or chest. Lastly, a seventh species, usually now placed in monotypic Neopsephotus , is pastel pink and blue. The clade, excluding Neopsephotus , began diversifying 6 Mya (3.4–8.1; fig. 11). We affirm the now well-established transferal of Neophema bourkii to monotypic Neopsephotus as sister to the six species we advocate leaving in Neophema . In addition to our genomic support for this, Neopsephotus bourkii is ecologically and phenotypically highly distinctive. Its plumage is uniquely pastel pink and blue, it has distinctive, musical vocalizations unlike the high-pitched tzeet like contact flight vocalizations made by the other six species, it inhabits arid zone Acacia scrubs, and is markedly crepuscular, i.e., noticeably active at dawn and dusk.

Among the six species remaining in Neophema , four are strictly or partially migratory, although the scale of movements varies. Neophema chrysostoma of southeastern Australia and the critically endangered N. chrysogaster are typical long-distance migrants crossing Bass Strait between Tasmania and the Australian mainland, N. chrysostoma migrating still further north deep into arid central Australia. As some of these movements occur at night, we reiterate the observation of Joseph et al. (2011) that crepuscular or nocturnal activity characterizes a number of species in Pezoporini as currently construed, suggesting its early origin in the tribe’s history. Neophema elegans in the west of its range is partially migratory with at least a part of its population regularly migrating seasonally up to several hundred kilometers between the arid and temperate zones ( Davis and Burbidge, 2008). Neophema elegans in eastern Australia moves locally with some suggestion of seasonality ( Collar and Boesman, 2020) and N. petrophila certainly undergoes pronounced postbreeding dispersal and probably some seasonal movement ( Baxter and Parker, 1981; Higgins, 1999). The sister species N. splendida and N. pulchella are in turn sister to the preceding four species and geographically replace each other in low woodlands in arid central-southern Australia and mesic southeastern Australia, respectively.

Wolters (1975) introduced Neophemini at tribal rank to accommodate the genera Neopsephotus and Neophema . He gave neither a description nor a reference to one as is required for new family-group names introduced after 1930. Therefore, his name is a nomen nudum and unavailable. Our colleagues R. Schodde and I. Mason have independently concluded that there is merit in recognizing Neophema and Neopsephotus at tribal or subtribal rank. We here join with them in introducing a family-group name to accommodate the genera Neopsephotus and Neophema either at tribal rank or as a subtribe within Pezoporini. We introduce a new family-group name at the rank of tribe as: