For anyone interested in such things, a paper has just been published which
advocates splitting the White naped Honeyeater into two - the South West WA
form becoming Melithreptus whitlocki.
This is no particular surprise; Christidis and Boles flagged the possibility
and the latest Slater field guide has it as a separate species already. The
paper advocates that treatment on the basis that genetically the two forms
currently in White naped are in fact each more closely related to Black headed
Honeyeater than they are to each other. While I have not read the entire
paper, I don't think it says anything that would particularly support splitting
Golden backed from Black chinned.
The citation of the paper is Toon, Hughes & Joseph 2010. Multilocus analysis of
honeyeaters (Aves: Meliphagidae) highlights spatio-temporal heterogeneity in
the influence of biogeographic barriers in the Australian monsoonal zone. Mol
Ecol: in press. The abstract can be found at
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123571854/abstract
It also makes reference to an in press paper supporting the splitting of the
Western Ground Parrot.
Murray Lord
Sydney
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