Patterns of morphological and molecular variation in Acrocephalus newtoni on Madagascar |
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| Authors: | Steven Goodman Jose Tello Olivier Langrand |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Field Museum of Natural Histog Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, lllinois, U.S.A.,World Wide Fund for Nature, Antananarivo, Madagascar;2. Field Museum of Natural Histog Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, lllinois, U.S.A.,Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A;3. World Wildlife fund, Libreville, Gabon |
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| Abstract: | Goodman, S.M., Tello, J.G. & Langrand, O. 2000. Patterns of mor-phological and biochemical variation in Acracephalus newtoni on Madagascar. Ostrich 71(3&4): 367-370. The endemic Madagascar Swamp-Warbler, Acrocephalus newtoni, generally occurs in lowland or upper mid-elevation (to c. 1800 m) aquatic habitats associated with slow-moving river, stagnant marshes and swamps in most regions of the island. In 1995, a population of swamp-warbler was found above tree-line in a dry ericoid zone of vegetation on the Andringitra Massif (at 2050 m) in south-central Madagascar, a very different habitat from that typically occupied by A. newtoni. Given the typical habitat specificity of members of the genus Acrocephalus, we expected the Andringitra birds to show differences at the specific level in comparison to marsh-dwelling A. newtoni. Using morphological and molecular characters it was found that the Andringitra population cannot be differentiated from typical A. newton. |
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