Chloridops wahi (Wahi Grosbeak)

[another specialist]

Chloridops wahi
Olson & James 1991
Holocene of Oahu and Maui, Hawaiian Islands
Primary materials: Holotype: maxilla
Secondary materials: Paratypes: maxillae, mandibula

Storrs L. Olson & Helen F. James,
Descriptions of thirty-two new species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part II. Passeriformes
Ornithological Monographs 46 (1991)
The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington D.C.

[Melanie]

This unique and poorly-known finch was discovered in June 1887 by Scott Wilson in the Kona district of Hawaii. It was so rare that it was apparently unknown to the native Hawaiians, who had no name for it. The Kona Grosbeak was a highly specialized bird and probably succumbed to extinction because of this. Other name(s): Chloridops; Grosbeak Finch; Kona Finch.

The new species of Chloridops is based on fossils discovered by Aki Sinoto in July ,1977 at Barbers Point and Ulupau Head, Oahu.The name wahi refers to cleave or break in pieces in reference to the function of the bill in cracking hard seeds.Olson and James state." This species is similar to Chloridops kona but with the bill smaller and shorter.

www.oahunaturetours.com/cloridopswahi.html

[another specialist]

here is pic of Chloridops kona a close relative of this species mentioned on this thread... very similiar

pic found by melanie

[another specialist]

source for my first entry

www.ornitaxa.com/SM/Fossil/FossilFringilli.htm

[another specialist]

commonly known as O'ahu "Grosbeak",

[another specialist]

Chloridops wahl, new species
(Figs. 14A, 15C, D, 16A)
"Psittirostra (Chloridops), lesser Oahu species" (Olson and James, 1982b: 40, 45; 1984:
771; James, 1987:225, 228.
Holotype: Nearly intact maxilla lacking a small part of the left nasal, BBM-X
155524 (Figs. 14A, 16A). Collected July or August 1977 by Aki Sinoto.
Type locality.' Site 50-Oa-B6-100B, Barbers Point, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands.
Distribution: Oahu: Barbers Point and Ulupau Head. Maui: Puu Naio Cave.
Etymology: Hawaiian, wahl to cleave or break in pieces; in reference to the
function of the bill in cracking hard seeds.
Measurements ofholotype: See Table 5.
Paratypes: Oahu, Barbers Point: maxilla lacking part of nasals, USNM 255568;
nearly intact maxilla, BBM-X 155155; articular end of mandible lacking medial
process, USNM 445785; mandibular symphysis with left ramus, BBM-X 151278
(Figs. 15D, 16A); left mandibular ramus lacking the medial process and most of
the symphysis, BPBM 158681 (Fig. 15C).
Maul, Puu Naio Cave: maxilla lacking part of the left nasal, USNM 445784.
Measurements ofparatypes: See Tables 5 and 6.
Diagnosis: Similar to Chloridops kona but with the bill smaller and shorter,
and the dorsal nasal bar broader anteriorly. Chloridops wahl and C. kona are very
similar in other characters of bill osteology, including the lateral cotyla which is
elevated and angled posteromedially, the narrow sagittal groove in the lingual
surface of the mandibular symphysis, the flattened posterior portion of the tomial
crest of the mandible, the very blunt, close-set ventral ridges of the maxilla, and
the presence of a foramen on each nasal above the narial opening. The mandible
of C. wahi also resembles those referred to Chloridops sp. from Maui and Kauai,
except that it has a narrower lingual trough with a deeper sagittal groove in the
symphysis, and is larger than the spedmen of Chloridops sp. from Maul The bill
differs from that of C. regiskongi, new species, in having the maxilla less deep,
the blunt sagittal crest of the maxilla absent, the dorsal nasal bar much narrower,
the narial openings subcircular, the lateral nasal bars more robust, the nasal septum
usually partly ossified, the ventral ridges of the maxilla more blunt and close-set,
the antorbital space relatively small, the posterior margin of the mandibular
symphysis nearly straight, the lateral cotylae of the mandible elevated and angled
posteromedially; in the presence of a foramen above each narial opening, and in
the presence of a sagittal groove in the mandibular symphysis.
Remarks: Although the bill differs in qualitative characters and in size, this
species is clearly allied to C. kona and to the spedmens from Kauai and Maui
referred only to Chloridops sp. The only skeletal element that is known from all
of these forms is the mandible, so that the sagittal groove in the mandibular
symphysis is the only synapomorphy yet detected in all of them. This character
is more pronounced in C. kona and C. wahi than in the specimens referred to
Chloridops sp.

[another specialist]

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all from

elibrary.unm.edu/sora/om/om046.pdf.

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