- A new species of bristle-tyrant, Phylloscartes lanyoni, from the lower Cauca Valley of Colombia is described. P. lanyoni is morphologically similar to the small Andean bristle-tyrants formerly placed in the genus Pogonotriccus (venezuelanus, orbitalis, guala-quizae) and may be a trans-Andean allospecies of P. orbitalis. Received 17 Nov. 1986, accepted 11 Feb. 1987.
From 1941 to 1952, the National Museum of Natural History (USNM)
obtained 23,258 skins, 478 skeletons and alcohol-preserved specimens,
and 44 nests and eggs of Colombian birds from Melbourne A. Carriker,
Jr. (Appendix 1). Although little publicized, this collection, which is still
under systematic study, has proved to be one of the most significant from
that country. Several new species were described from this material by
Alexander Wetmore (e.g., Crypturellus saltuarius, Coeligena orina, Me-
tallura iracunda). Here I describe a new species of bristle-tyrant from the
foothills of the Central Cordillera above the lower Cauca Valley in north-
em Colombia.
Phylloscartes lanyoni, sp. nov.
ANTIOQUIA BRISTLE-TYRANT
HOLOTYPE.--National Museum of Natural History, USNM 402716; adult male from
E1 Pescado, 12 km below Pro. Valdivia on the Rio Cauca, ca 1500-1700 ft [457-518 m],
Dept. Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington,
D.C. 20560.
529
530 THE WILSON BULLETIN ß Vol. 100, No. 4, December 1988
Graves ß NEW BRISTLE-TYRANT FROM COLOMBIA 531
Department of Antioquia, Colombia; collected 15 May 1948 by M. A. Carriker, Jr.; original
number 13482.
DIAGNOSIS.--Distinguished as a Phylloscartes (Pogonotriccus) by small size, contrasting
auriculars, two well-developed wing bars, greenish back, small thin bill, and by lacking a
crown patch. P. lanyoni is most similar to P. orbitalis but differs as follows: (1) lanyoni has
much yellowet breast, belly, undertail coverts, and wing bars; (2) yellow outer margins of
middle and greater wing coverts more extensive; (3) incomplete eyering as opposed to a
complete eyering; (4) whitish instead of yellowish feathers above bill; and (5) a greenish-
gray crown blending into the greenish back, rather than a clear gray crown contrasting with
the back (see frontispiece). Differs from P. ophthalmicus in being smaller and lacking distinct
black auricular spot and grizzled throat; from P. gualaquizae and P. venezuelanus in having
much yellowet plumage throughout and lacking a well-developed black auricular patch; and
from P. poecilotis and P. flaviventris, in lacking ochraceous wing bars and rufous lores,
respectively.
DESCRIPTION OF HOLOTYPE. --All color comparisons were made under Examolites (c)
(Macbeth Corp.). Crown neutral gray suffused with greenish and blending posteriorly with
bright olivaceous green back. Back and rump bright olivaceous green. Upper tail coverts
bright olivaceous yellow. Wings and tail dark brownish gray; remiges and primaries and
outer secondaries edged on outer webs with bright olivaceous green. Outer web of inner
secondaries, especially innermost, with broader pale olivaceous yellow margins. Outer webs
of middle and greater wing coverts edged with bright yellow bar. Lesser wing coverts bright
olivaceous green tipped with dull yellow. Feathers above nostrils and lores to the anterior
margin of the eyering grizzled gray and white. A few scattered grizzled feathers around the
orbits form a faint incomplete eyering and trailing superciliary. Auriculars yellow with light
gray tips which form a faint gray "auricular spot." Chin, throat, breast, abdomen, flanks,
and undertail coverts bright yellow, palest on chin and becoming more intense eaudally,
approaching Strontian Yellow (capitalized color name from Ridgway 1912) on abdomen.
Soft part colors in dried specimen: upper mandible brownish black; lower mandible pale,
horn-colored (probably flesh-colored in life), with a dusky tip; feet and tarsi dark brown.
MEASUREMENTS.--See Table 1.
DISTRIBUTION.--Known only from the type locality. May occur in the foothills at the
northern ends of the Central and Western Cordillera in the drainage of the Rio Cauca.
ETYMOLOGY.--I am pleased to name this new species for Wesley E. Lanyon in rec-
ognition of his research on tyrannid systematics over the past three decades.
SPECIMENS EXAMINED.--Phylloscartes lanyoni: (USNM rolotype, USNM 402715 )
from type locality. P. gualaquizae.' Ecuador: Prov. Napo, San Jos6 Abajo (AMNH 1 8); Prov.
Morona-Santiago, Cordillera Cutucfi (ANSP 1 ); Prov. Zamora-Chinchipe, Zamora (AMNH
1 8, 1 ); Peru: Dpto. San Martin, Moyobamba (ANSP 1 8). P. venezuelanus: Venezuela:
Aragua, Maracay (ANSP 1 8, 1 1/2); Aragua, Cerro Golfo Triste (ANSP 1 8); Carabobo, Hcda.
Sta. Clara (USNM 1 8). P. orbitalis: Ecuador: Prov. Napo, Cordillera de Galeras (AMNH
1 8, 2 ), San Jos6 Abajo (AMNH 3 88, 3), Rio Suno above Avila (AMNH 3 88, 1 ;
ANSP 1 8); Peru: Dpto. San Martin, Moyobamba (ANSP 1 8); Dpto. Cuzco, Cordillera
Vilcabamba (AMNH 1 8); Dpto. Puno, La Pampa (AMNH 1 8, 2 ; ANSP 2 88), Huacamayo
(ANSP 1 8, 1 ). Bolivia: Dpto. Cocbabamba: Palmar (ANSP 1 ).
I also examined large series (>50 of each species) of P. ophthalmicus, P. poecilotis, P.
ventralis, P. eximius, and P. (Capsiempis) flaveola and smaller numbers ofP. nigriJ?ons, P.
chapmani, P. flaviventris, P. flavovirens, P. superciliaris, P. oustaleti, P. difftcilis, P. paulistus,
and P. sylviolus.
REMARKS.--There appear to be no sexual differences in plumage color or pattern.
532 THE WILSON BULLETIN ß Vol. 100, No. 4, December 1988
DISCUSSION
Ecology.--The only ecological information on P. lanyoni is contained
in Carriker's field catalog deposited in the National Museum of Natural
History. From 10 to 17 May 1948, Carriker and an assistant were engaged
in general collecting from a base camp at E1 Pescado, a cattle ranch on
the highway along the Rio Cauca, 12 km below Puerto Valdivia. They
collected a total of 166 specimens (91 species) (Appendix 1) in a mixture
of pasture edge, second growth, and virgin forest on the ridges and hills
east of the river from 180 to 600 m elevation (mostly from 335-520 m).
This sample of species is typical of the lowland avifauna of northwestern
Colombia (Haffer 1975); no strictly montane species are represented.
Carriker noted that the specimens ofP. lanyoni, which he misidentified
as "Capsiempisfiaveola leucophrys," were collected in "an area of second-
growth" on 15 May. Carriker apparently used the term "second-growth"
to refer to rather tall regenerating forest as distinguished from "brush."
Carriker noted that the testes of the male were greatly enlarged. Other
species taken during the same morning (450-520 m) (Xenops minutus,
Sclerurus mexicanus, Gymnopithys bicolor, Pipra coronata, blanacus vi-
tellinus, Schiffornis turdinus, Ramphocaenus melanurus, Heterospingus
xanthopygius) were taken in "more or less virgin forest."
Systematic relationships. --Based on the similarity of body plumage and
reduced auricular spot, P. lanyoni appears to be a trans-Andean relative
of P. orbitalis, although a close relationship to P. venezuelanus and P.
gualaquizae is possible. Measurements of these species overlap exten-
sively (Table 1). All four species inhabit Andean foothills and satellite
ranges at elevations of 300-11 O0 m.P. lanyoni and P. venezuelanus have
allopatric distributions; P. gualaquizae and P. orbitalis are sympatric from
northern Ecuador south to northern Peru. P. poecilotis, which has been
collected above Valdivia at 7000 ft (ca 2135 m), is sympatric with P.
lanyoni, although there probably is a large elevational gap between their
distributions. P. ophthalmicus occurs in the Central Cordillera as far north
as Hacienda Sofia, Department of Caldas (USNM 436619, 436620,
436621). These specimens are nearly identical in plumage pattern and
color with those from southern Colombia (Belbn, Department of Huila)
and the eastern slope of Ecuador and show no trend toward P. lanyoni.
Commentary on generic relationships. --The small, greenish tyrannulets
in the subfamily Elaeniinae (Traylor 1977) present some of the most
challenging problems in avian systematics. Characters used to discrimi-
nate generic limits consist primarily of external proportions (bill, tarsus,
and wing), tarsal scutellation, and plumage color. Traylor (1977) discussed
the extensive overlap and intergradation of these characters among the
Graves ß NEW BRISTLE-TYRANT FROM COLOMBIA 533
genera recognized by Hellmayr (1927), and synonymized more than one-
third of them in his classification.
Of particular interest in this paper is the expanded genus "Phylloscartes"
(Traylor 1977), which includes species formerly placed in Pogonotriccus,
Leptotriccus, and Capsiempis. P. lanyoni is clearly related to the nominal
species of Pogonotriccus. The aggregate "Phylloscartes," comprising 20
species, is rather heterogeneous in plumage pattern and color with no
distinctive characteristics that unite the taxa to the exclusion of other
species. Unfortunately, the available anatomical data also fail to permit
the critical discrimination of "Phylloscartes" within the Elaeniinae. For
example, Ames (1971) considered the syringes of the aforementioned
genera to be different from one another and from all other genera. On the
other hand, Warter (1965) found cranial characters to be similar through-
out his subfamily Euscarthminae, comprising 13 genera of small flycatch-
ers; the range of cranial character states (e.g., nasal septum) in the ex-
panded "Phylloscartes" includes nearly all the variation found within the
subfamily. Recently, Lanyon (1988) found that the syringeal structure of
five species of Pogonotriccus and Leptotriccus sylviolus did not differ sig-
nificantly from two species of Phylloscartes (ventralis and chapmani).
However, cranial and syringeal morphology suggested that Capsiempis
was most closely related to Phaeomyias and Nesotriccus. These incon-
gruent character sets and the apparent lack of plumage synapomorphies
prevent an explicit generic diagnosis of "Phylloscartes" (sensu Traylor)
from being formulated, and in an operational sense, suggest that the
expanded genus is not strictly monophyletic. Additional analyses are need-
ed to resolve the generic limits within this group.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank J. Fitzpatrick, K. Parkes, and T. Schulenberg for comments on the manuscript,
and W. Lanyon for sending me his unpublished manuscript. I thank the curators and staff
of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP), American Museum of Natural
History (AMNH), and the University of So Paulo, Museum of Zoology for permission to
examine specimens. Part of this work was supported by a grant from the Research Oppor-
tunities Fund, Smithsonian Institution. I thank J. Fitzpatrick for preparing the artistic and
accurate frontispiece.
LITERATURE CITED
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HFER, J. 1975. Avifauna of northwestern Colombia, South America. Bonn. Zool. Mono-
gr. 7.
HELLM3/4R, C.E. 1927. Catalogue of birds of the Americas and the adjacent islands, Part
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534 THE WILSON BULLETIN ß Vol. 100, No. 4, December 1988
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RIDGWAY, R. 1912. Color standards and color nomenclature. Washington, D.C. Published
by the author.
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WATER, S.L. 1965. The cranial osteology of the New World Tyrannoidea and its taxo-
nomic implications. Ph.D. diss., Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.