New Distributional Records and Taxa from the Outlying Mountain Ranges of New Guinea

Abstract

The mountains of New Guinea consist of the Central Range plus 19 outlying ranges. I report distributional and taxonomic novelties from the first explorations of four of these outliers, plus re-explorations of five others. The summit elevation and history of exploration are also described for each outlier. Thirty new outlier populations were discovered for superspecies represented by endemic species on outliers. New taxa described are three subspecies of Peneothello cryptoleucus (Kumawa Mts), Pachycephalopsis hattamensis (Yapen Island), and Melipotes fumigatus (Kumawa Mts), and a Pachycephala provisionally included in P. soror (Kumawa Mts). Taxa for which provisional diagnoses are for- mulated but which are not now named because of limited specimens include a Rallicula (Foja Mts) and races of Eupetes castanonotus (Foja and Kumawa Mts), Crateroscelis robusta (Foja and Kumawa Mts), Sericornis virgatus (Fakfak and Kumawa Mts), Poecilodryas albispecularis (Foja and Kurnawa Mts), a Pachycephala (Fakfak Mts), Ailuroedus crassirostris (Kumawa Mts), and Ptiloprora erythropleura (Kumawa and Fakfak Mts). Species lines in the Parotia superspecies are reconsidered. First records include Accipiter buergersi for Irian Jaya, A. meyerianus for the Irian Jaya mainland, Ptilinopus viridis for the Papua New Guinea mainland, and Tregellasia leucops and Pachycephalopsis hattamensis for any offshore island. A new Parotia population found in the Foja Mts may possibly be the long-lost P. carolae berlepschi. The bowerbird Amblyornis inornatus was found in the Kumawa Mts and probably in the Fakfak Mts. Vocalizations and habits are described for little-known species including those represented by new taxa plus Aquila gurneyi, Psittaculirostris salvadorii, Sericornis rufescens, Monarcha rubiensis, Peneothello bimaculatus, Timeliopsis griseigula, Melidectes leucostephes, Meliphaga montana, and Ptiloprora mayri. Speciation and distribution of endemic taxa on the outliers are analyzed, with the conclusion that the flow of species has been overwhelmingly from Central Range to outliers, not vice versa.