Molecular systematics of the Dendrocolaptes picumnus / hoffmannsi / platyrostris species complex

The polytypic Dendrocolaptes picumnus forms a monophyletic group with D. hoffmannsi and D. platyrostris and together this whole complex is distributed from Central America to northern Argentina, including all biomes of Brazilian territory. A previous molecular study, using one sample from each taxon in the complex, recovered D. picumnus and D. hoffmannsi as sister species and D. platyrostris as basal in the group. Although the basal node joining the entire complex is well supported, the one that joins D. picumnus and D. hoffmannsi lacked statistical support. Thus, sampling multiple taxa and populations in this complex is important to resolve several taxonomic issues and reconstruct the group’s history of diversification. Here, we present the most complete data set for complex to date based on a broad taxon sampling. Altogether, 68 samples belonging to 7 out of the 12 taxa grouped in the complex were sequenced for the ND2 and used in a preliminary phylogenetic analysis. An inferred Bayesian tree recovered five main clades with high support. Although the basal relationships among these five clases nodes lack statistical support, the inferred phylogeny suggests that D. picumnus is paraphyletic with respect to D. hoffmannsi and D. platyrostris. Specifically, the phenotypically distinct D. picumnus transfasciatus was recovered as more closely related to D. hoffmannsi and D. platyrostris than to the other subspecies of D. picumnus. Samples from additional taxa in the complex as well as more mitochondrial and nuclear genes will be incorporated into this study in the near future.