to South American Classification Committee
Proposal (#234)Transfer "Amazona" xanthops to the monotypic genus Salvatoria
Effect on South American Check-list:
This proposal would add a monotypic genus (Salvatoria) to the official list, and exclude a species from the genus Amazona in order to make it monophyletic.Background:
Duarte and Caparroz (1995) suggested that the Yellow-faced parrot (Amazona xanthops Spix 1824), a species endemic to eastern and central Brazil, exhibited substantial karyotypic differences not only compared to other species in the genus Amazona, but also to all other New World parrots examined. Duarte and Caparroz (1995) used these differences to suggest that A. xanthops should be excluded from the genus Amazona and placed in the monotypic genus Salvatoria, as first proposed by Ribeiro (1920) based on bill and plumage characteristics.Although A. xanthops did not form a monophyletic group together with three other Amazona species based on a phylogenetic analysis of 307 bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b) region (Birt et al., 1992), a clear understanding of the relationships between A. xanthops and other New World parrots was lacking at that time, and the species was maintained in Amazona.
New Data:
Hypotheses regarding the evolutionary history of Amazona were investigated by Russello and Amato (2004) using a combined phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence data from six partitions including mitochondrial (COI, 12S, and 16S) and nuclear (b-fibint7, RP40, and TROP) regions. Their results demonstrate that Amazona is not monophyletic owing to the placement of A. xanthops, which forms a well-supported clade with Graydidascalus.
The sister relationship between A. xanthops and Graydidascalus was also recovered with strong support in a genus-level molecular phylogeny of Neotropical parrots based on analyses of 6388 base pairs of nuclear (RAG-1) and mitochondrial (cyt b, NADH2, ATPase 6, ATPase 8, COIII, 12S rDNA, and 16S rDNA) sequence data (Tavares et al. 2006).
Clearly, the Yellow-faced parrot does not belong in Amazona. Because the type species of Amazona is A. farinosa, "Amazona" xanthops needs to be placed in another genus.
Recommendation:
Place "Amazona" xanthops as the only member of the genus Salvatoria, following Ribeiro (1920). Recent phylogenetic evidence strongly validates his morphological observations and is consistent with karyotypic data.
Literature Cited:
Birt, T.P., Friesen, V.L., Green, J.M., Montevecchi, W.A., and Davidson, W.S. (1992). Cytochrome-b sequence variation among parrots. Hereditas 117:62-72.Duarte, J.M.B., and Caparroz, R. (1995). Cytotaxonomic analysis of Brazilian species of the genus Amazona (Psittacidae, Aves) and confirmation of the genus Salvatoria (Ribeiro, 1920). Braz. J. Genet. 18:623-628.
Ribeiro, A.M. (1920). Revisão dos psittacídeos brasileiros. Revista do Museu Paulista 12:1-82.
Russello, M.A., and Amato, G., (2004). A molecular phylogeny of Amazona:Implications for Neotropical parrot biogeography, taxonomy, and conservation. Mol. Phylog. Evol. 30:421-437.
Tavares, E.S., Baker, A.J. Pereira, S.L., and Miyaki, C.Y. Phylogenetic Relationships and Historical Biogeography of Neotropical Parrots (Psittaciformes: Psittacidae: Arini) Inferred from Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA Sequences. Syst. Biol. 55, (3): 454-470.
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Erika Sendra Tavares (with minor edits by C. D. Cadena), August 2006Addendum: A recent paper (Caparroz and Pacheco 2006) indicates that the name Salvatoria is pre-occuppied by another taxon (an annelid), and proposes Alipiopsitta as a new name for Salvatoria Miranda-Riberio. We will need to vote on this at some point, so for now a YES vote will indicate only agreeing to remove A. xanthops from Amazona. If this passes, a second proposal will follow regarding the Salvatoria vs. Alipiopsitta issue.