A NEW SPECIES OF SMOKY HONEYEATER (MELIPHAGIDAE: MELIPOTES) FROM WESTERN NEW GUINEA

ABSTRACT. -

We describe a new species of smoky honeyeater from the Foja Mountains, an isolated range in western New Guinea (Papua Province, Indonesia). A common inhabitant of montane forest and forest-edge in this little-known north coastal range, this species possesses a fleshy pendant suborbital wattle, unique in the genus Melipotes, among other characteristics that distinguish it from all congeners. This fleshy wattle provides a morphological link between Melipotes and the monotypic genus Macgregoria, an alpine inhabitant of the Central Ranges of New Guinea, traditionally treated as a bird of paradise (e.g., Frith and Beehler 1998) but now regarded as the sister genus to Melipotes (Cracraft and Feinstein 2000). The presence of an endemic meliphagid species in the Foja Mountains highlights the biogeographic significance and conservation importance of this geographically isolated upland forest tract, which is also home to the endemic Golden-fronted Bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons) and Berlepsch's Parotia (Parotia berlepschi), a distinctive, recently rediscovered species of six-wired bird of paradise (B. M. Beehler unpubl. data). Received 7 June 2006, accepted 4 November 2006.

Key words: Foja Mountains, Indonesia, Meliphagidae, Melipotes carolae, New Guinea, new species, Papua, Wattled Smoky Honeyeater.

Una Especie Nueva de Melipotes (Meliphagidae) del Oeste de Nueva Guinea

RESUMEN. - Describimos una especie nueva de Meliphagidae de las montañas Foja, una cadena aislada del oeste de Nueva Guinea (Provincia de Papua, Indonesia). Esta especie es un habitante común de los bosques montanos y los bordes de bosque de esta cadena montañosa poco conocida de la costa norte. Una de las características que distinguen a esta especie de las demás especies del género Melipotes, es que ésta presenta una carúncula carnosa colgante suborbital que es única en el género. La carúncula carnosa representa una conexión morfológica entre Melipotes y el género monotípico Macgregoria, que habita las zonas alpinas de las cordilleras centrales de Nueva Guinea y que tradicionalmente había sido tratado como un ave del paraíso (e.g., Frith y Beehler 1998), pero que ahora se considera como el género hermano de Melipotes (Cracraft y Feinstein 2000). La presencia de una especie de Meliphagidae endémica en las montañas de Foja resalta la importancia biogeográfica y para la conservación de este bosque de tierras altas aislado, en el que también habitan la especie endémica Amblyornis flavifrons y la recientemente redescubierta ave del paraíso Parotia berlepschi (B. M. Beehler datos no publicados).

FOR MORE THAN seven decades, New Guinea's greatest ornithological mystery surrounded the unknown location of the native breeding haunts of the Golden-fronted Bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons). This species was described by Lord Walter Rothschild from a single trade skin (an adult male) obtained from an unknown location in western (then Dutch) New Guinea by indigenous collectors apparently in the employ of the plume merchant Duivenbode (Rothschild 1895, Gilliard 1969). Two additional specimens made their way to Rothschild, presumably from the same feather merchant, once the species' novelty was determined.

A general belief held that the forests that were home to this "missing" bowerbird would also support additional avian novelties, so there was considerable subsequent effort to locate the presumably montane homeland of this bowerbird in the hope of discovering an additional trove of ornithological novelties. In spite of diligent investigative field work throughout the first half of the 20th century, the mystery bowerbird eluded an array of western field ornithologists, including F. de Bruijn, Ernst Mayr, Fred Shaw-Mayer, Crown Prince Leopold, S. Dillon Ripley, Sten Bergman, Max Thompson, Phil Temple, and E. Thomas Gilliard (Mayr 1941, Gilliard 1969). Ripley (1964), in particular, was convinced that the unexplored Foja (= Gauttier) Range of northwestern New Guinea was the home of the bowerbird, but his attempt in 1960 to penetrate this range from the north via the Tor River failed because of the logistical hurdles of hiking into this remote, trackless area of difficult terrain. Later in the decade, E. Thomas Gilliard proposed to get into the Foja uplands by helicopter, but these plans were cut short by his untimely death (M. L. LeCroy pers. comm.). It was not until 1979, and the ready availability of helicopter transport, that Jared Diamond was able to carry out a pioneering observational reconnaissance of the Foja Mountains (followed by a repeat visit in 1981). He succeeded in locating the "lost" bowerbird and provided an initial characterization of the range's montane avifauna (Diamond 1982, 1985). However, because Diamond collected no specimens for museum study, the Foja Range has remained the most significant mountain massif in New Guinea without a bird survey documented by museum specimens (Diamond 1985, Helgen 2005).

The Foja Mountains lie just east of the Mamberamo River, and north of the Taritatu (Idenburg) River. They are entirely isolated from the Central Range as well as from all other adjacent upland areas. The range is linear (west-northwest-east-southeast) with several summits above 2,000 m, the highest reaching 2,200 m. The range is very young, composed of recently uplifted deep-sea sediments that have been sutured to New Guinea's north coast by the tectonic collision of the Australian and Pacific plates (D. A. Polhemus pers. comm.). The entire massif, encompassing ~300,000 ha, is apparently unroaded and perhaps untrailed, with no villages except in the lowland fringes. Informants from Papasena and Kwerba state that local people do not enter the uplands, in part because of inaccessibility, but also because the summits are considered sacred.