A new subspecies of Philemon buceroides from Arnhem land

Abstract

The taxonomic status and distribution of the two forms of the Helmeted Friarbird Philemon buceroides in Arnhem Land are reviewed. The form occurring on the sandstone escarpments of western Arnhem Land differs from nearby coastal populations primarily in its larger size and from nominate buceroides of Timor in its vestigial casque; it is described as a new subspecies, P. b. ammitophila. Reasons are given for thinking that ammitophila and gordoni arose from the same ancestor in northern Australia, rather than independently from ancestral populations of nominate buceroides in Timor.