New species of bush-warbler

Although the presence of an unknown montane bird species in the Crown Prince Range, Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea, had been noted since 1972, it was not until 2000 that the first specimens could be mistnetted. In 2006, this new bush-warbler species was described as Odedi Cettia haddeni (Lecroy, M & Barker, F K 2006. A new species of Bush-Warbler from Bougainville Island and a monophyletic origin for Southwest Pacific Cettia. Am Mus Novitates 3511: 1-20). The species is named after Don Hadden, ornithologist and photographer of the avifauna of Bougainville Island and the Solomon Islands, who has put considerable effort in the search for this new bush-warbler. The proposed English vernacular name, Odedi, is the same as the one used by the local residents. The new species is morphologically distinguished from other Cettia species in the region by its large size (wing length and, especially, body mass), rounded wing, relatively short tail and longer and stronger tarsus, which are thougt to reflect an evolution to more terrestrial habits. The distinctness was also confirmed by an analysis of a partial sequence of one nuclear gene and of a complete sequence of mitochondrial cytochrome b.
The paper can be viewed at www.tc.umn.edu/~barke042/pdfs/LeCroy&Barker06.pdf. ANDRÉ J VAN LOON