Gallirallus

Tongan banded rail Gallirallus ecaudatus, photographed by Duncan.

Belongs within: Rallidae.

Gallirallus is a genus of long-billed rails with a distribution centred around the southern Pacific. The taxonomy of this group differs between authors: some have restricted the name Gallirallus to the New Zealand weka G. australis, a large flightless rail, with other species often included in the broad genus Rallus. Also subject to disagreement is the treatment of the buff-banded rails (G. philippensis to G. goodsoni in the tree below) which are often treated as a single widespread species G. philippensis. Nesoclopeus is a small genus of largish, dark-plumaged, possibly flightless rails native to the Solomon Islands and Fiji, though extinct in the latter, that appears to be phylogenetically nested within Gallirallus.

<==Gallirallus Lafresnaye 1841 CC10 (see below for synonymy)
    |  i. s.: G. mirificus (Parkes & Amadon 1959) L98
    |         G. pacificus (Gmelin 1789) [=Rallus pacificus] G-RGT14
    |         G. ripleyi Steadman 1986 L98
    |         G. sharpei (Büttikofer 1893) [=Stictolimnas sharpei] L98
    |--G. calayanensis Allen et al. 2004 G-RGT14
    `--+--Eulabeornis Gould 1844 G-RGT14, L98
       |    `--*E. castaneoventris Gould 1844 G-RGT14, WS48 [incl. E. castaneoventris rogersi Mathews 1912 WS48]
       `--+--G. australis (Sparrman 1786) G-RGT14, CC10 (see below for synonymy)
          |    |--G. a. australis (see below for synonymy) CC10
          |    |--G. a. greyi (Buller 1888) [=Ocydromus greyi] CC10
          |    |--G. a. hectori (Hutton 1873) [=Ocydromus hectori; incl. G. hectori reischeki Iredale 1913] CC10
          |    `--G. a. scotti (Ogilvie-Grant 1905) [=Ocydromus scotti] CC10
          `--+--+--G. lafresnayanus Verreaux & Des Murs 1860 G-RGT14, L98 (see below for synonymy)
             |  `--+--G. modestus (Hutton 1872) G-RGT14, CC10 (see below for synonymy)
             |     `--Capellirallus Falla 1954 L98
             |          `--*C. karamu Falla 1954 CC10
             `--+--+--G. celebensis Quoy & Gaimard 1830 L98 [=Habropteryx celebensis L98, Hypotaenidia celebensis WH02]
                |  `--+--G. torquatus Linnaeus 1766 G-RGT14 [=Rallus torquatus G-RGT14, Habropteryx torquatus L98]
                |     `--+--G. okinawae (Yamashina & Mano 1981) G-RGT14 [=Rallus okinawae L98, Habropteryx okinawae L98]
                |        `--G. sulcirostris Wallace 1862 (see below for synonymy) L98
                `--+--G. dieffenbachii (Gray 1843) G-RGT14 (see below for synonymy)
                   `--+--G. insignis (Sclater 1880) G-RGT14 [=Rallus insignis G-RGT14, Habropteryx insignis L98]
                      `--+--+--G. owstoni (Rothschild 1895) G-RGT14 [=Hypotaenidia owstoni L98, Rallus owstoni L98]
                         |  `--Nesoclopeus Peters 1932 G-RGT14, L98
                         |       |--*N. poecilopterus (Hartlaub 1866) [=Rallina poeciloptera] G-RGT14
                         |       |--N. immaculatus Mayr 1949 L98
                         |       `--N. woodfordi (Ogilvie-Grant 1889) [=Rallina woodfordi] G-RGT14
                         `--+--+-‘Tricholimnas’ conditicius Peters & Grisom 1928 L98
                            |  `--G. sylvestris (Sclater 1869) G-RGT14 (see below for synonymy)
                            `--+--+--G. rovianae Diamond 1991 L98
                               |  `--G. wakensis (Rothschild 1903) G-RGT14 (see below for synonymy)
                               `--+--G. philippensis (Linnaeus 1766) G-RGT14 (see below for synonymy)
                                  |    |--G. p. philippensis CC10
                                  |    |--G. p. assimilis (Gray in Dieffenbach 1843) (see below for synonymy) CC10
                                  |    |--G. p. macquariensis (Hutton 1879) (see below for synonymy) CC10
                                  |    `--G. p. mellori (Mathews 1912) CC10 (see below for synonymy)
                                  `--+--G. christophori (Mayr 1939) L98
                                     `--+--G. sethsmithi (Mathews 1911) L98
                                        `--+--G. ecaudatus (Miller 1783) [=Rallus ecaudatus] L98
                                           `--G. goodsoni (Mathews 1911) L98

Gallirallus Lafresnaye 1841 CC10 [incl. Brachypteryx Owen 1848 non Horsfield 1822 CC10, Cabalus Hutton 1874 WH02, Habropteryx Stresemann 1932 L98, Huttonena Mathews 1929 CC10, Hypotaenidia Reichenbach 1853 CC10, Nesolimnas Andrews 1896 CC10, Ocydromus Wagler 1830 non Schellenberg 1806 CC10, Sylvestrornis Mathews 1928 L98, Tricholimnas Sharpe 1893 L98; Ocydrominae]

Gallirallus australis (Sparrman 1786) G-RGT14, CC10 [=Rallus australis CC10, *Brachypteryx australis CC10, *Ocydromus australis CC10; incl. Rallus fuscus Ellman 1861 non Linnaeus 1758 CC10, O. insignis Forbes 1892 CC10, O. minor Hamilton 1893 CC10, Gallirallus minor CC10, Rallus niger Ellman 1861 CC10, R. punctatus Ellman 1861 CC10, R. rufus Ellman 1861 CC10, R. strepitans Ellman 1861 CC10]

Gallirallus australis australis (Sparrman 1786) [incl. Ocydromus assimilis Buller 1888, *G. brachypterus Lafresnaye 1841, O. brachypterus, O. earli Gray 1862, O. finschi Hutton 1873, Gallirallus fuscus de Bus de Gisignies 1847, O. fuscus, O. nigricans Buller 1869, Gallirallus townsoni Mathews & Iredale 1914, Rallus troglodytes Gmelin 1789, G. troglodytes] CC10

Gallirallus dieffenbachii (Gray 1843) G-RGT14 [=Rallus dieffenbachii CC10, Cabalus dieffenbachii CC10, Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii CC10, *Nesolimnas dieffenbachii CC10, Ocydromus dieffenbachii CC10, Rallus philippensis dieffenbachii CC10]

Gallirallus lafresnayanus Verreaux & Des Murs 1860 G-RGT14, L98 [=Eulabeornis lafresnayanus S13, Tricholimnas lafresnayanus S13]

Gallirallus modestus (Hutton 1872) G-RGT14, CC10 [=Rallus modestus CC10, *Cabalus modestus CC10, *Huttonena modesta CC10; incl. Ocydromus pygmaeus Forbes 1892 CC10]

Gallirallus philippensis (Linnaeus 1766) G-RGT14 [=Rallus philippensis CC10, Hypotaenidia philippensis CC10]

Gallirallus philippensis assimilis (Gray in Dieffenbach 1843) [=Rallus assimilis, Eulabeornis philippensis assimilis, Hypotaenidia philippensis assimilis, Rallus philippensis assimilis; incl. R. pictus Potts 1872] CC10

Gallirallus philippensis macquariensis (Hutton 1879) [=Rallus macquariensis, Eulabeornis philippensis macquariensis, Hypotaenidia philippensis macquariensis, Rallus philippensis macquariensis] CC10

Gallirallus philippensis mellori (Mathews 1912) CC10 [=Eulabeornis philippensis mellori CC10; incl. Hypotaenidia australis Pelzeln 1873 non Rallus australis Sparrman 1786 CC10, Rallus philippensis australis CC10, H. philippensis australis WS48, H. philippensis norfolkensis Mathews 1931 CC10, Rallus philippensis norfolkensis CC10, R. pectoralis Gould 1848 non Temminck 1831 CC10, *Hypotaenidia pectoralis CC10]

Gallirallus sulcirostris Wallace 1862 [=Habropteryx sulcirostris; incl. G. kuehni, G. limarius, G. remigialis] L98

Gallirallus sylvestris (Sclater 1869) G-RGT14 [=Ocydromus sylvestris G-RGT14, Cabalus sylvestris WH02, Rallus sylvestris WH02, *Sylvestrornis sylvestris L98, Tricholimnas sylvestris L98]

Gallirallus wakensis (Rothschild 1903) G-RGT14 [=Hypotaenidia wakensis L98, Rallus wakensis L98]

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[CC10] Checklist Committee (OSNZ). 2010. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica 4^th ed. Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Te Papa Press: Wellington.

[G-RGT14] Garcia-R, J. C., G. C. Gibb & S. A. Trewick. 2014. Deep global evolutionary radiation in birds: diversification and trait evolution in the cosmopolitan bird family Rallidae. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 81: 96–108.

[L98] Livezey, B. C. 1998. A phylogenetic analysis of the Gruiformes (Aves) based on morphological characters, with an emphasis on the rails (Rallidae). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B—Biological Sciences 353: 2077–2151.

[M03] Morcombe, M. 2003. Field Guide to Australian Birds 2^nd ed. Steve Parish Publishing.

[S13] Sarasin, F. 1913. Die Vögel Neu-Caledoniens und der Loyalty-Inseln. In: Sarasin, F., & J. Roux (eds) Nova Caledonia: Forschungen in Neu-Caledonian und auf den Loyalty-Inseln. A. Zoologie vol. 1 pt 1 pp. 1–78, pls 1–3. C. W. Kreidels Verlag: Wiesbaden.

[WS48] Whittell, H. M., & D. L. Serventy. 1948. A systematic list of the birds of Western Australia. Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Special Publication 1: 1–126.

[WH02] Worthy, T. H., & R. N. Holdaway. 2002. The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric life of New Zealand. Indiana University Press: Bloomington (Indiana).

Last updated: 17 August 2019.