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

Auk, The, Jul 2007 by Beehler, Bruce M, Prawiradilaga, Dewi M, de Fretes, Yance, Kemp, Neville

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Gibbs (1994) recently observed a Melipotes in the Fak Fak Mountains (Fig. 1) that exhibited a pendant facial wattle. On the basis of pale lower ventral plumage, he believed that this population was a derivative of gymnops, not fumigatus as Diamond (1985) had postulated. It is certainly worth returning to the Fak Fak Mountains to collect the honeyeater and other novelties inhabiting that undersurveyed mountain range.

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New Guiñean biogeography. - The genus Melipotes assumes greater biogeographic significance with the discovery of M. carolae. Melipotes can be added to the list of readily speciating New Guiñean montane-forest bird genera that have produced allospecies-level vicariants on several of New Guinea's north coastal ranges (other examples include Rallicula, Melidectes, Ptiloprora, Amblyornis, Sericulus, Parotia, and Astrapia; ci. Diamond 1969, 1985). These lineages form the systematic "backbone" of the New Guiñean montane forest avifauna, and five of these seven "core" genera are endemic to New Guinea's humid uplands.

This discovery confirms that the Foja Mountains are New Guinea's third-most-significant north coastal range, when measured by species-level avian endemism (Diamond 1985). The Tamrau-Arfak Mountains of the Bird's Head Peninsula of the far west support nine montane endemic bird species, the massive and high Finisterre-Saruwaged Mountains of the Huon Peninsula support four species, and the Foja three species. Like the uplands of the Huon and Bird's Head, the Fojas harbor an endemic species of Melipotes and an endemic bird of paradise (Parotia). As with Bird's Head, the Foja possess an endemic gardener bowerbird of the genus Amblyornis (remarkably absent from the Huon, which instead possesses a subspecies of the central cordilleran species A. macgregoriae). The Fojas also possess endemic populations-subspecies of Sericulus, Melidectes, Ptiloprora, and Rallicula (Diamond 1985; B. M. Beehler unpubl. data).

Conservation significance. - On the basis of ornithological surveys in outlying New Guiñean mountain ranges, Diamond (1982, 1985) provided the initial indication of the biological importance of the Foja Mountains in a regional context. Our discovery of an endemic meliphagid in the Foja Mountains and rediscovery of Parotia berlepschi (the "lost" six-wired bird of paradise; Kleinschmidt 1897, B. M. Beehler unpubl. data) further confirm the faunal distinctiveness of these mountains and provide strong evidence for their longterm biotic isolation (Fig. 1). Although the Foja Range is often united with other outlying northern New Guiñean mountain ranges (especially the Cyclops, Bewani, Torricelli, and Prince Alexander ranges) as part of a single biogeographic unit (e.g., Stattersfield et al. 1998, Helgen 2005), our results offer new evidence of the Fojas' faunal uniqueness compared with even these closely associated ranges. This is also indicated by the discovery of new endemic species of butterflies, mammals, frogs, and plants during our recent Foja survey (van Mastrigt 2006, S. J. Richards unpubl. data).

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

Auk, The, Jul 2007 by Beehler, Bruce M, Prawiradilaga, Dewi M, de Fretes, Yance, Kemp, Neville

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