MITOCHONDRIAL DNA PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF THE BAY WREN (TROGLODYTIDAE: THRYOTHORUS NIGRICAPILLUS) COMPLEX

Abstract

Abstract The Bay Wren (Thryothorus nigricapillus) is distributed from Costa Rica to Ecuador and includes seven described subspecies, five of which occur in the Caribbean lowlands of Panama. The subspecies vary in plumage characters, with particularly striking differences between Bay Wrens from western Panama (to the north), and eastern Panama (to the south). We surveyed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation from a geographically broad sample of Bay Wrens and compared the phylogeographic structure of mtDNA diversity with previously described patterns of morphological variation. The mtDNA-based phylogeographic reconstructions revealed a basal split separating populations in far eastern Panama and South America from those in central Panama through Costa Rica. These two clades are concordant with previous morphology-based groupings of T. nigricapillus subspecies into the “castaneus group” (costaricensis, odicus, castaneus, and reditus) and the “nigricapillus group” (schottii, connectens, and nigricapil...