I went back to Schodde and Mason to refresh myself as to why the Spotted
Pardalote isn’t spilt from the Yellow-rumped.
Their two reasons were:
1. Spotted is found in the SW, and from South Australia around to Qld
, always within 200-300km of the coast. Yellow-rumped is found in the
Mallee inland of these disjunct populations. S & M seem to be saying there
should either be three species (SW, SE and Mallee) or one, not two. The
three spp solution is complicated by the N Qld ssp, which has
characteristics of both Spotted and Yellow-rumped.
2. There is a wide zone of intergradation at both ends of the mallee
belt from Yellow-rumped back into Spotted.
I’m not particularly worried by the intergradation zone argument as both
Yellow-rumped and Spotted clearly have preferences for very distinct
habitat, and the size of the intergradation zone in northern Victoria and
the Riverina (and maybe in the SW) may be a recent product of vegetation
clearances.
As to the first argument, let’s have a four spp solution!
--
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net
I want to be with the 9,999 other things.
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