The Acrocephalus warblers are small, insectivorous
passerinebirds belonging to the genus Acrocephalus. Formerly in the
paraphyleticOld World warbler assemblage, they are now separated as the namesake of the marsh and tree warbler family
Acrocephalidae. They are sometimes called marsh warblers or reed warblers, but this invites confusion with
marsh warbler and
reed warbler.
These are rather drab brownish warblers usually associated with
marshes or other wetlands. Some are streaked, others plain. Many species breeding in temperate regions are
migratory.
This genus has heavily diversified into many species throughout islands across the tropical
Pacific. This in turn has led to many of the resulting insular
endemic species to become
endangered. Several of these species (including all but one of the species endemic to the
Marianas and two endemic to
French Polynesia) have already gone
extinct.
The most enigmatic species of the genus, the
large-billed reed warbler (A. orinus), was rediscovered in
Thailand in March, 2006; it was found also in a remote corner of
Afghanistan in the summer of 2009. Prior to these recent sightings, it had been found only once before, in 1867.
Taxonomy
The genus Acrocephalus was introduced in 1811 by the German naturalist
Johann Andreas Naumann and his son
Johann Friedrich Naumann.[2][3] The
type species was designated as Turdus arundinaceusLinnaeus, 1758, by the English zoologist
George Gray in 1840. This is the
great reed warbler.[4][5] Many species have a flat head profile, which gives rise to the genus name, Acrocephalus from
Ancient Greekakros, "highest", and kephale, "head". It is possible that the Naumanns thought akros meant "sharp-pointed".[6]
List of species in taxonomic order
The genus contains 42 species of which 6 insular forms are now extinct:[7]
Fragmentary
fossil remains from the
Late Miocene (about 11 mya) of
Rudabánya (NE
Hungary) show some
apomorphies typical of this genus.[8] Given its rather early age (most
Passerida genera are not known until the
Pliocene), it is not too certain that it is correctly placed here, but it is highly likely to belong to the Acrocephalidae at the least.
References
^"Acrocephalidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
Olsson, U.; Rguibi-Idrissi, H.; Copete, J.L.; Arroyo Matos, J.L.; Provost, P.; Amezian, M.; Alström, P.; Jiguet, F. (2016). "Mitochondrial phylogeny of the Eurasian/African reed warbler complex (Acrocephalus, Aves). Disagreement between morphological and molecular evidence and cryptic divergence: A case for resurrecting Calamoherpe ambigua Brehm 1857". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 102: 30–44.
doi:
10.1016/j.ympev.2016.05.026.
PMID27233439.
External links
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