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Re: The Owl Name Game

Hi Kristin and all others experiencing sleepless nights over owl names,

The change was made in the 44th Supplement to the AOU Checklist, 2003.

Apparently the name Megascops, used for a subgenus covering the new-world Otus, was elevated to a full genus, differentiating from the

old world Otus, except for Flammulated Owl, which stays in Otus.

Here's part of the reference:

p. 254. The subgenus Megascops, recognized for New World species of Otus except O. flammeolus
(Marshall and King in Amadon and Bull 1988), is elevated to full generic status on the basis of mitochondrial
DNA and vocal data (Kšnig et al. 1999). Otus flammeolus is retained within Otus because of vocal similarity with some Old World species.

The full article can be downloaded at http://www.aou.org/checklist/index.php3 Click on the link for the 44th

Supplement to download a PDF.

As you'll note from the reference above, the name Megascops was proposed in 1988.

Good birding (and sleeping)!

Mark Stackhouse
westwings@sisna.com
801-487-9453 (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
011-52-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico)

On Jul 18, 2005, at 1:56 PM, Kristin Purdy wrote:

I apologize in advance for an exceptionally geeky question, but a
certain mystery has been keeping me up nights.  Perhaps someone out
there already has the answer:

Does anyone know why the taxonomic name of the three screech-owl species
has been changed from Otus to Megascops?!?!?

The taxonomic names in the titles of the Western Screech-, Whiskered
Screech-, and Eastern Screech-owls have been changed in the Birds of
North America Online; however, the narrative accounts that follow have
not yet been updated.  The disparity leads me to believe that the name
change is a relatively recent development.

Thanks in advance for your replies.  I'm sure that once I learn the
answer, I'll be able to sleep again.

Kris

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To unsubscribe, e-mail:  birdtalk-unsubscribe@utahbirds.org
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