Porphyrio

American purple gallinule Porphyrio martinica, copyright Carmelo López.

Belongs within: Rallidae.

Porphyrio, the swamphens or gallinules, are a group of relatively large, heavy-bodied rails with generally blue or purple underparts and a well-developed frontal shield. The frontal shield is a bright red in Old World species related to the purple swamphen P. porphyrio but pale blue in the American purple gallinule P. martinica and greenish-yellow in the azure gallinule P. flavirostris of South America.

<==Porphyrio Brisson 1760 [incl. Caesarornis Reichenbach 1853, Mantellornis Mathews 1911, Notornis Owen 1848] CC10
    |  i. s.: P. calvus [incl. P. smaragdinus] S13
    |           |--P. c. calvus S13
    |           `--P. c. caledonicus Sarasin 1913 S13
    |         P. coerulescens HSS13
    |         P. paepae Steadman 1988 L98
    |--+--P. alleni Thompson 1842 G-RGT14
    |  |--P. flavirostris (Gmelin 1789) JT12, G-RGT14 [=Fulica flavirostris G-RGT14]
    |  `--P. martinica (Linnaeus 1766) [=Fulica martinica] G-RGT14
    `--+--+--P. hochstetteri (Meyer 1883) JT12, CC10 (see below for synonymy)
       |  `--P. kukwiedei Balouet & Olson 1989 [=P. (Notornis) kukwiedei] L98
       `--+--P. indicus Horsfield 1821 L98 [=P. poliocephalus indicus RN72; incl. P. palliatus L98]
          `--+--P. pulverulentus Temminck 1826 L98
             `--+--+--P. madagascariensis (Latham 1801) [incl. P. aegyptiacus] L98
                |  `--+--*P. porphyrio (Linnaeus 1758) CC10, JT12, CC10 [=Fulica porphyrio CC10]
                |     `--P. poliocephalus (Latham 1801) L98 (see below for synonymy)
                `--+--+--P. ellioti Salvadori 1879 [incl. P. caledonicus, P. neobritanicus] L98
                   |  `--P. viridis Begbie 1834 [incl. P. edwardsi] L98
                   `--+--P. albus (White 1790) L98 [=Fulica alba G-RGT14]
                      `--+--P. mantelli (Owen 1848) WH02 [=*Notornis mantelli CC10]
                         `--P. melanotus Temminck 1820 [=P. melanonotus; incl. P. norfolkensis] L98
                              |--P. m. melanotus (see below for synonymy) CC10
                              |--P. ‘samoensis’ aneiteumensis S13
                              |--P. m. bellus Gould 1840 CC10 (see below for synonymy)
                              |--P. m. melanopterus Bonaparte 1856 CC10, L98 [incl. P. mertoni L98]
                              |--P. m. pelewensis CC10
                              `--P. m samoensis Peale 1848 CC10, L98 [incl. P. tongensis L98, P. vitiensis L98]

Inorganic: Notornis notornis minilorientalis Okamura 1987 O87

Porphyrio hochstetteri (Meyer 1883) JT12, CC10 [=Notornis hochstetteri CC10, *Mantellornis hochstetteri CC10, Porphyrio mantelli hochstetteri CC10; incl. Notornis parkeri Forbes 1892 CC10]

Porphyrio melanotus bellus Gould 1840 CC10 [=P. poliocephalus bellus RN72, P. porphyrio bellus WS48; incl. P. melanotus woodwardi Mathews 1912 WS48]

Porphyrio melanotus melanotus Temminck 1820 [=P. porphyrio melanotus; incl. P. chathamensis Sharpe 1893, P. melanotus chathamensis, P. melanotus fletcherae Mathews 1911, P. melanotus neomelanotus Mathews 1911, P. stanleyi Rowley 1875, P. melanotus stanleyi] CC10

Porphyrio poliocephalus (Latham 1801) L98 [=Gallinula poliocephala CC10, *Caesarornis poliocephalus CC10, Porphyrio porphyrio poliocephalus L81; incl. P. seistanicus 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.

[HSS13] Hirschfeld, E., A. Swash & R. Still. 2013. The World's Rarest Birds. Princeton University Press: Princeton (New Jersey).

[JT12] Jetz, W., G. H. Thomas, J. B. Joy, K. Hartmann & A. Ø. Mooers. 2012. The global diversity of birds in space and time. Nature 491: 444–448.

[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.

[L81] Long, J. L. 1981. Introduced Birds of the World: The worldwide history, distribution and influence of birds introduced to new environments. Reed: Sydney.

[O87] Okamura, C. 1987. New facts: Homo and all Vertebrata were born simultaneously in the former Paleozoic in Japan. Original Report of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory 15: 347–573.

[RN72] Rutgers, A., & K. A. Norris (eds) 1972. Encyclopaedia of Aviculture vol. 1. London, Blandford Press.

[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: 20 August 2019.