I want to add a hybrid (observation(s) waiting for ID, and “This intergrade / hybrid entity is actually very common where the two types come together in a broad band.” according to the observer) between two subspecies: Barnardius zonarius subsp. semitorquatus and Barnardius zonarius subsp. zonarius.
I would think it should be formulated as Barnardius zonarius semitorquatus × zonarius zonarius; as how other taxa are on iNat. And labelled as “infrahybrid”.
If this hybrid has not been described and named in the scientific literature, we probably shouldn’t be creating a taxon for it, as we don’t allow undescribed taxons on iNat. (Note that I’m not a fan of this policy, but if we’re going to have it, it should be adhered to consistently.)
That’s not how most other intergrades/infrahybrids on iNat are formatted, though (among vertebrates at least*). Of the other 13ish bird intergrades (and couple additional non-bird vertebrate intergrades) on iNat, all but one**, including another Australian parrot, are formatted as “Genus species subspecies1 × subspecies2” (which happens to coincide with the format used by eBird, including for the specific example in question), so the original name given to this taxon on iNat—Barnardius zonarius semitorquatus × zonarius—would be more consistent with the rest.
(“Name1 name2 name3 × name4” placed within the species “Genus species” in iNat’s taxonomic hierarchy implies “Genus species [subspecies1 × subspecies2]” or “Genus species subspecies1 × Genus species subspecies2”—i.e., that the third and fourth words in that name are the epithets of two subspecies within that overarching species—just as “Name1 name2 × name3” implies “Genus [species1 × species2]” or “Genus species1 × Genus species2”—i.e., that name2 and name3 are the epithets of two species within that genus.)
*Several intergrades among Lepidoptera have the format “Genus species subspecies1 × genus species subspecies2”; unfortunately the fix a little while back that allowed genus names to be capitalized after × appears to have only applied to hybrids [and genushybrids if that wasn’t already the case—I unfortunately can’t remember], not infrahybrids [that’s not a reason to disallow that expanded format, though, but rather a reason to allow capitals after the × in infrahybrids on iNat]. I won’t speak to the situation with the varied formats of plant hybrid formulas on iNaturalist, since while the ICZN doesn’t regulate the format of hybrid formulas, the ICN does. “Genus species1 × species2” (iNat’s guideline for hybrid name formats), or “Genus species subspecies1 × subspecies2”, is explicitly against the rules for plants/algae/fungi/etc.—but “Genus species subspecies1 × species subspecies2” would be just as wrong, as the ICN requires including the genus [abbreviated or not] after the × in hybrid formulas. Whether ICN’s rules should be applied to animal hybrids too on iNat, with the genus being included after the × in all cases, is a different issue, but I don’t see a situation where having “species subspecies” sans “Genus” after the × in an intergrade would be considered more correct than just “subspecies” after the × in an intergrade)
**(which contra iNat’s guidelines uses x rather than ×)
Yes, thanks for bringing that up. Repeating the initial subspecific epithet would indeed be redundant - in the same way repeating the generic name in a specific hybrid would be so. My mistake.
First noted:
“The south-western forest form, semitorquatus, with its all-green
belly and prominent red frons, intergrades sharply with the smaller,
inland and arid-country form zonarius, with its broad yellow-
breast-band and vestigial red frons, on the eastern margins of the
sclerophyll forest of jarrah-marr-kam (Fisher 1970; Serverty &
Whittell 1976; Forshaw 1981). Following widespread land clear-
ing, zonarius genes have now introgressed semitorquatus on the
Swan coastal plain (Fisher 1970).”
“Hybrid Zones in Australian Birds
Julian Ford
To cite this article: Julian Ford (1987) Hybrid Zones in Australian Birds, Emu - Austral Ornithology,
87:3, 158-178, DOI: 10.1071/MU9870158”