GOELDIANA

Zoologia

Numero 1

A REAVALUATION OF SERPOPHAGA ARAGUAYAE

SNETHLAGE, 1928 (AVES: TYRANNIDAE)

JOSÉ MARIA CARDOSO DA SILVA

16 de abril de 1990

1 SciELO

Coeldiana Zoologia

Numero 1: 16 de abril de 1990

A REAVALUATION OF SERPOPHAGA ARAGUAYAE
SNETHLAGE, 1928 (AVES: TYRANNIDAE)

^ 1 O

Jose Maria Cardoso da Silva ’

Abstract. The taxonomic status of Serpophaga
araguayae Snethlage, 1928 (Aves: Tyrannidae) is
reavaluated. It is concluded that the species is
invalid and should be synonymized with Myiopagis
c. caniceps (Swainson, 1837).

Key words: Birds, Tyrant Flycatchers, Serpophaga
araguayae, Myiopagis caniceps, Taxonomy-birds

Resumo. 0 status taxonomico de Serpophaga
araguayae e reavaliado. Conclui-se que a espécie
é inválida e deve ser sinonimizada com Myiopagis
c. caniceps (Swainson, 1837).

Palavras-chave: Aves, Tiranídeos, Serpophaga
araguayae, Myiopagis caniceps, Taxonomia-aves

Serpophaga araguayae Snethlage, 1928 is known
only from the type, a male collected at Furo da Pedra,
Ilha do Bananal, Tocantins State (ex-Goiás), Brazil,
on 6 Oct 1927, and deposited at the Museu Nacional,

Rio de Janeiro (MNRJ 12,848). The original descrip-
tion is detailed, reproducing all the information of

^Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, DeptP Zoologia, C.P.
399, 66.040 Belém, Pará, Brazil

Desenvolvimento

2 Serpophaga araguayae

the specimen labei, with the exception of the nota-
tion that the bird, when collected, was part of um
bando de pássaros" ("a flock of birds ):

"Upper part of body light slaty-gray, lightly
washed with greenish at the sides of the rump; top
of head slightly darker and of a purer gray , the ^
feathers indistinctly streaked with black; those in
the center of the head have white bases, forming a
semi-concealed occipital patch; sides of head and
ear-coverts grayish, streaked with white; throat
grayish white; breast and flanks light slaty-gray;
center of belly and lower tail coverts white; thighs
grayish, narrowly streaked with white; wing coverts
dark brownish black, broadly margined with white
forming two distinct bars; remiges blackish brown,
primaries with narrow, and secondaries with broad
white outer margins; rectrices brownish gray, those
in the center rather washed with blackish and bor-
dered on the basal part with light slaty g^ay-

"Measurements : wing 60.5 mm; tail 52 mm; bill

9 mm; tarsus 16 mm.

"íris brown; feet (sic) dark gray; bill black;

stomach contents insects.

"Habitat: forest of Bananal Island, Araguaia

River .

"When 1 killed this bird I thought at first that
it was S. hypoleuca pallida that I collected on the
lower Tocantins in 1907, but later I realized that it
belongs to an entirely different group. It appears
to be related to S. munda of Berlepsch ( f rom western
Mato Grosso), from which it differs by larger size
and by the gray breast, instead of white. Since I do
not have material at hand to use for comparison, I
provisionally treat the new form as a binomial.

Since the description of the type , there has been
no additional Information on the taxon.

I examined the type in February 1989 with the

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Serpophaga araguayae

3

objective of clarifying its systematic position. Two
preliminary hypotheses regarding the infrageneric
affinities of the taxon were evaluated (see below).

I also compared the type with other species of
elaenines (sensu Traylor 1977). As a consequence, I
arrived at the conclusion that Serpophaga araguayae
is an invalid species that should be synonymized with
Myiopagis c. caniceps (Swainson, 1837).

Serpophaga munda Berlepsch, stated by Snethlage
to be S. araguayae' s probable closest relative, is
today considercd (Traylor 1977) a subspecies of S.
subcristata (Vieillot). In spite of similarities in
plumage coloration with S. subcristata munda, S.
araguayae, when compared with other members of tne
subcristata group, is distinctive in its measurements
(Table 1), in its lack of white superciliary stripe,
and in its relatively heavy bill.

Traylor (1977) considers S. araguayae dose to S.
nigricans, without citing an explicit basis for this
conclusion. The latter species has generally gray
plumage, with little or no white in the center of the
belly. its measurements are also distinct from those
of S. araguayae (Table 1).

Based on Snethlage 's Information, S. araguayae
is a bird of gallery forest. The other species of
Serpophaga, however, are either birds of open forma-
tions with scattered trees, or terrestrial riverine
species (Traylor & Fitzpatrick 1982; Sick 1985; Hilty
& Brown 1986). In addition to this ecological dif-
ference, S. araguayae' s deeper and stronger bill has
no parallel in any other Serpophaga examined. These
characteristics are discordant with the generic
classif ication attributed to S. araguayae, and indi-
cate that the taxon should be placed in another group
of elaenines, the genus Myiopagis.

Within Myiopagis, there is a striking similarity
between S. araguayae and M. c. caniceps, a bird
commonly found in mixed species flocks in the forests

Serpophaga araguayae

Table 1 - Measurements (mm) and standard deviations
( in parentheses) of Serpophaga s. subcristata, S. s.
inunda, S. nigricans. "S. araguayae" and Myiopagis c.
caniceps.

wing (flat)

tail

bill'

S. s. subcristata

10 á's, 9 ?'s

46. 5( 1.7)

48.7(2.9)

6. 2(0. 7)

S . s . munda

2 S’s, 1 $, 2 ?

50.3(3.1)

52.0(3.8)

6. 1(0.6)

S. nigricans

9 á's, 5 ?'s, 3 ?

56. 2( 1.8)

51.8(2.2)

7. 4(0. 5)

2

"S- araguayae"

1 5

60.0

55.0

7.0

M. c. caniceps

7 <5's, 2 ?

61.0(1.5)

56. 9( 1.8)

6. 8(0. 4)

lu-

bill measurement from nostril to tip
7

measurements of the type by the author

of central Brazil. The form of the bill, measurements
(Table 1), and plumage coloration all support this
conclusion. M. c. caniceps presents a great variation
in plumage coloration (Hellmayr 1908). Females and
young males have greenish backs, with the belly and
central feathers of the top of the head yellow; the
adult male, however, has a dark slate-gray back, with
the belly and central feathers of the top of the head
white, and breast whitish washed with light gray.
Sub-adult males may present a wide spectrum of inter-
mediate coloration phases between these two extremes.
Within this framework, the single specimen of S.
araguayae can be viewed as an individual of M. c.
caniceps with almost fully adult plumage. The plum-
age of the back, with a mixture of greenish tones in

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Serpophaga araguayae

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the dominant light slaty-gray, is the only reminis-
cence of the sub-adult plumage.

The general externai morphological similarity
between Myiopagis and Serpophaga has already provoked
much confusion in the past (Traylor 1977), and ap-
parently does not reflect any dose phylogenetic as-
sociation. In the most complete and recent study on
the phylogeny of the Tyrannidae (Lanyon 1988), the two
genera, in spite of both being included in the Elaen-
inae, are widely separated in the proposed cladogram.

With the invalidation of S. araguayae, the valley
of the Araguaia River retains only a single avian
endemism at the species levei: Cercomacra ferdinandi.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank D. C. Oren (Museu Goeldi) for academic
guidance and the translation of the original Portu-
guese manuscript of this paper to English. F. C.
Novaes (Museu Goeldi) facilitated my consultations of
the Museu Goeldi ornithological collections and his
personal library. Many of the ideas presented here
were preliminar i ly discussed with H. Sick, L. A. P.
Gonzaga, and T. C. Ávila-Pires. R. B. Cavalcanti
(Universidade de Brasília) supported my studies on
the birds of central Brazil. J. B. Nacinovic
(Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro) and H. F. Camargo
(Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de Sio Paulo)
facilitated my studies of the collections under their
care. This study was financed by the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the World Wildlife
Fund-US (Project 6240), and the Brazilian National
Research Council (CNPq, Process 131173871).

REFERENCES

HELLMAYR, C. E. 1908. An account of the birds col-
lected by Mons . G. A. Baer in the State of Goyaz,
Brazil. Nov. Zool. 15:13-102.

6

Serpophaga araguayae

HILTY, S. L. & BROWN, W. L. 1986. A guide to the
birds of Colombia- Princeton, Princeton University
Press, xii + 836pp.

LANYON, W. E. 1988. A phylogeny of the thirty-two
genera in the Elaenia assemblage of tyrant-f lycat-
chers. Am. Mus. Novit. 2914:1-57.

SICK, H. 1985. Ornitologia brasileira: uma intro-
dução. Brasília, Editora Universidade de Brasília,
xxii + 827pp.

SNETHLAGE, E. 1928. Novas espécies e subespécies de
aves do Brasil Central. Boi. Mus. Nac., Rio de
Janeiro 4(2): 1-7.

TRAYLOR, M. A. 1977. A classif ication of the tyrant
flycatchers (Tyrannidae) . Buli. Mus. Comp. Zool.
148:129-184.

1979. Family Tyrannidae. In: Traylor, M. A.

(ed.), Check-list of birds of the world, vol. 8:
1-245.

& FITZPATRICK, J. W. 1982. A survey of the

tyrant flycatchers. Living Bird 19:7-50.

SCT/CNPí]

MUSEU PARAENSE EMÍLIO GOELO

Campus de Pesquisa — Av. Perimetral. Guamá,

Caixa Postal: 399. Telex: (091) 1419. Telefones: Parque, (091) 224-9233.
Campus, (091) 228-2341 e 228-2162
66,040. Belém, Pará, Brasil.

Publicado no Departamento de Zoologia do
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, com o apoio de:

The John D. and

Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

WWF

&

Llorld Uildlife Fund-US