Abstract
The Thamnophilus punctatus complex has been recently reviewed on the basis of morphological and vocal characters, and is divided in six different species. Two of the new species, although well defined on the basis of morphological differences, could not be unambiguously distinguished through their loud songs. The Planalto Slaty-antshrike (Thamnophilus pelzelni) and the Sooretama Slaty-antshrike (T. ambiguus) are most easily distinguished by subtle and localized changes in plumage colors of males and females. In the present study we used sequences of the control region, Cytochrome b, and ND2 genes, of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to evaluate the levels of molecular differentiation between these two species. The mean pairwise distance between the two species was 3.8%, while it varied from 2.7% to 4.9% for each mtDNA region. Although extensive variation was also detected among haplotypes within species, especially for T. ambiguus, we suggest that the genetic divergence found between T. ambiguus and T. pelzelni is high enough to corroborate the separate species status of these two antbird taxa.
Highlights
In 1997, Isler and colleagues have proposed the division of Thamnophilus punctatus complex in six different species
Most samples were classified in the field as Thamnophilus punctatus and, only after genetic analyses and comparisons of their haplotypes with the ones obtained for voucher specimens, they were assigned to T. ambiguus or T. pelzelni on the basis of the clades supported by phylogenetic reconstructions
Comparing base composition of T. ambiguus and T. pelzelni individuals, we found that it was in accordance with what is expected for vertebrate mitochondrial DNA, with low levels of guanine in the L strand
Summary
In 1997, Isler and colleagues have proposed the division of Thamnophilus punctatus complex in six different species. Their study was based on vocalization, geographic distribution, plumage, and some other morphological characters to distinguish the different species of the complex (Isler et al, 1997). According to these authors, the Planalto Slaty-antshrike pelzelni Hellmayr, 1924) and the Sooretama Slatyantshrike (Thamonophilus ambiguus Swainson, 1825) share several morphological features and are most distinguished by plumage colors. The underpart of T. pelzelni males is gray with the center of the belly extensively whitish, while in T. ambiguus males, the underpart is gray but with whitish on the belly ab-.
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