Unexpected divergence and lack of divergence revealed in continental Asian Cyornis flycatchers (Aves: Muscicapidae)

Abstract

The flycatcher genus Cyornis (Aves: Muscicapidae) comprises 25 species with Oriental distributions. Their relationships are poorly known. We analyzed the phylogenetic relationships of 70 individuals from 12 species and several subspecies of Cyornis based on three mitochondrial genes and five nuclear introns, with special focus on Chinese and Vietnamese populations of the monotypic C. hainanus and polytypic C. rubeculoides. We found no support for inclusion of C. concretus in Cyornis. Deep divergences were observed among different subspecies of C. banyumas and C. rubeculoides. C. rubeculoides glaucicomans was also shown to have a highly distinctive song, and we propose that it is treated as a distinctive Chinese endemic species, C. glaucicomans. In contrast, the south Vietnamese C. rubeculoides klossi, which has a disjunct distribution from the other subspecies of C. rubeculoides, along with a recently discovered population in Guangdong Province (China) with several plumage features reminiscent of C. r. klossi, were indistinguishable in all loci analyzed from the phenotypically markedly different C. hainanus. More research is needed to elucidate the reasons for this unexpected pattern.