Plateau lark
| Plateau lark | |
|---|---|
| File:Mirafra africana subsp nyikae, Kitulo NP, Per Holmen, a .jpg | |
| In Kitulo National Park, Tanzania | |
| Scientific classification Edit this classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Alaudidae |
| Genus: | Corypha |
| Species: | C. nigrescens
|
| Binomial name | |
| Corypha nigrescens (Reichenow, 1900)
| |
The plateau lark (Corypha nigrescens) is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found in east Zambia, north Malawi and south Tanzania. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark.
Taxonomy
[edit | edit source]The plateau lark was formally described in 1900 by the German ornithologist Anton Reichenow based on a specimen collected in Tanzania north of Lake Malawi on the Kitulo Plateau. He considered it to be a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark and coined the trinomial name Mirafra africana nigrescens.[1] The specific epithet is from Latin nigrescens, nigrescentis meaning "blackish".[2] The plateau lark is now treated as a separate species and placed in the genus Corypha. This is based on the results of two molecular phylogenetic studies by a group of ornithologists led by Per Alström that were published in 2023 and 2024.[3][4][5]
Two subspecies are recognised:[5]
- C. n. nigrescens (Reichenow, 1900) – northeast Zambia and south Tanzania
- C. n. nyikae (Benson, 1939) – east Zambia, north Malawi and southwest Tanzania
References
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