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1 October 2014 Morphological and Molecular Sexing of the Monochromatic Barbados Bullfinch, Loxigilla barbadensis
Jean-Nicolas Audet, Simon Ducatez, Louis Lefebvre
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Abstract

The bullfinch Loxigilla barbadensis is an endemic passerine on the Caribbean island of Barbados that has only recently been taxonomically split from the Lesser Antillean bullfinch L. noctis. The trait that most clearly distinguishes L. barbadensis from L. noctis is the absence in the male of sexually dimorphic coloration of the body and throat feathers, with L. barbadensis males and females sharing the same dull brown plumage. Here we report, in 64 individuals netted throughout the island, the results of a discriminant analysis on two (wing length and tail length) to four morphological traits showing very high (97%) concordance with sexing via PCR using blood samples. Females also show a paler lower mandible, a trait that yields an 80% concordance with PCR sexing. We found one L. barbadensis male that had a noctis-like reddish throat patch, supporting the idea that sexual dichromatism is the ancestral condition and that male Barbados bullfinches have evolved cryptic coloration that now makes the species monochromatic.

© 2014 Zoological Society of Japan
Jean-Nicolas Audet, Simon Ducatez, and Louis Lefebvre "Morphological and Molecular Sexing of the Monochromatic Barbados Bullfinch, Loxigilla barbadensis," Zoological Science 31(10), 687-691, (1 October 2014). https://doi.org/10.2108/zs140025
Received: 4 February 2014; Accepted: 16 June 2014; Published: 1 October 2014
KEYWORDS
Barbados bullfinch
Lesser Antillean bullfinch
Loxigilla barbadensis
Loxigilla noctis
sex
sexing
sexual dimorphism
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