Study On Subspecies Differentiation Of Alcippe Morrisonia Based On Vocal,Feather Color And Morphological

The Alcippe morrisonia(Passeriformes: Pellorneidae: Alcippe)is a small sexually monomorphic babbler,occurring in tropical and subtropical habitats from Burma to Taiwan,China.It is a dominant species in understory forest of southern China.Traditionally,A.morrisonia is of seven subspecies according to the geographical region and their morphological difference.recently,based on the phylogenetic evidence,the International Ornithological Committee have advocated four distinct species in this complex rather than one.However,it is still controversial.The main goal of this study is to investigate the A.morrisonia complexes through vocal,feather color and morphological evidence.A total of 925 vocal recordings of 140 individuals were obtained herein by the records from the field(2012-2013)and from the bird song database.Using the Avisoft-SAS Lab Pro sound spectrum analysis software(Germany),sound spectrum and characteristic parameters of A.morrisonia complex was obtained.Based on the analysis of sound spectrum using multivariate statistical analysis,4 song types and 2?4 song types of each subspecies were emerged.The results of variance analysis and principal component analysis of song characteristic parameters indicate that seven subspecies can be divided into three branchs,the subspecies A.m.hueti,A.m.rufescentior and A.m.morrisonia are classified as one,A.m.yunnanensis and A.m.fratercula as one,A.m.davidi and A.m.schaefferi as one.Secondly,we quantified feather color using spectrometer to investigate the difference of feather color among the subspecies of A.morrisonia.Total 81 specimens were measured,and the feather color was quantified using 18 indexes of brightness,chroma and hue of the six parts of the head,ear,throat,waist,wing and tail.According to the analysis of variance,16 feather color parameters(except the hue of ear feather and the brightness of waist)showed significant differences among the seven subspecies.The scatter plots from principal component analysis shows that the seven subspecies of A.morrisonia are clustered into three groups,including 1)A.m.hueti,A.m.rufescentior,A.m.davidi and A.m.schaefferi,2)A.m.yunnanensis,A.m.fratercula,and 3)A.morrisonia.Thirdly,we measured and analyzed the morphological characteristics(e.g.,culmen length,wing length,tail length,and tarsus length)from 331 individuals that sampled from 39 localities.The results of variance analysis and principal component analysis show that the nodifference of morphological data among the seven subspecies of A.morrisonia,which further indicate difficulty in distinguishing them barely on morphological measurements.In summary,A.m.yunnanensis and A.m.fratercula can be treated as one independent species from our vocal and feather evidences,while,there is three different division for the other five subspecies.In the light of current phylogenetic evidences,a division from 7subspecies into 3 independent species is preferred: 1)A.morrisonia: including A.m.hueti,A.m.rufescentior and A.m.morrisonia;2)A.fratercula: including A.m.yunnanensis and A.m.fratercula;3)A.davidi: including A.m.davidi and A.m.schaefferi.We hope onour study could benefit future taxonomy and conservation of A.morrisonia complexes,and service as a methodological examples for study regarding taxonomic determination and subspecies differentiation.