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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 108(3)

Genetic differentiation across the Andes in two pan-Neotropical tyrant-flycatcher species

Frank E. Rheindt A B D , Janette A. Norman A B and Les Christidis A C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Genetics Department, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic. 3000, Australia.

B Sciences Department, Museum Victoria, 11 Nicholson St, Carlton, Vic. 3053, Australia.

C Australian Museum, Research and Collections, 6 College Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.

D Corresponding author. Email: FrankRheindt@yahoo.com.au

Emu 108(3) 261-268 https://doi.org/10.1071/MU08020
Submitted: 30 April 2008  Accepted: 04 July 2008   Published: 02 September 2008

Abstract

Vocal and phylogenetic research has revealed much hidden species-level diversity in tyrant-flycatchers (Tyrannidae), and field ornithological accounts indicate there is a great deal of additional diversity to be uncovered. Using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences, we screened genetic diversity from across the range of two pan-Neotropical species of elaeniine flycatcher – Camptostoma obsoletum (Southern Beardless Tyrannulet) and Phaeomyias murina (Mouse-coloured Tyrannulet) – for which vocal discontinuities have previously been reported. Our results indicate deep genetic divergences across the Andes in both species, and support a previously proposed separation of trans-Andean populations of P. murina into P. tumbezana. Within C. obsoletum, we additionally uncover a deep genetic break between a trans-Andean clade from dry Tumbesia and one from humid Chocó–Panama, and we fail to detect mitochondrial DNA differentiation in western Amazonian C. o. olivaceum, which has been treated as a distinct form based on differences in voice and plumage from surrounding subspecies. Further molecular and vocal sampling is necessary to confirm the division of C. obsoletum into three species.


Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following people and institutions for the provision of tissue samples for this study: Donna Dittmann, Van Remsen and Robb Brumfield (Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Sciences, Baton Rouge, LA) as well as Cristina Y. Miyaki and G. Sebastián Cabanne (Laboratório de Genética Evolutiva e Molecular de Aves, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil). Two anonymous referees are acknowledged for helping improve the manuscript. This work was undertaken at the Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Museum Victoria, which was established with the generous support of the Ian Potter Foundation and Amersham Biosciences (now GE Healthcare). The first author was supported by the following grants: Joseph Grinnell Student Research Award 2004 awarded by the Cooper Ornithological Society; Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research 2004; Systematics Research Fund 2006 awarded by the Linnean Society; Museum Victoria 1854 Student Scholarship; and University of Melbourne IPRS/MIRS Scholarships.


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