Genus Antigone Reichenbach, 1853

Museums

Regional Maps

• Antigone Reichenbach, L. 1853. Handbuch der speciellen Ornithologie. Dresden : Expedition der Vollständigsten Naturgeschichte Lief. 3 xxxi pp. [publication dated as 1852].

  Type species:

   Ardea antigone Linnaeus, 1758 by original designation.
• Mathewsia Iredale, T. 1911. A new generic name for the Australian Crane. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 27: 47 [47].

  Type species:

   Ardea rubicunda Perry, 1810 by original designation.

Introduction

The species in this genus were formerly placed in the genus Grus Peters, 1934, however Krajewski (1989) suggested that Grus as constituted by Peters (1934) was not monophyletic. Subsequent studies have recovered three well supported clades within the species previously placed in Grus, including an "Antigone" clade comprising the Australian species G. antigone & G. rubicunda, the east Asian G. vipio and the North American G. canadensis (see Krajewski et al., 2010). These clades have now become adopted as genera with the Antigone clade placed in the genus Antigone Reichenbach (1853).

Species in this genus are sometimes placed in the subgenus Mattewsia which was proposed by Iredale (1911) as a replacement generic name for Ardea rubicunda Perry 1810, which was misidentified as a species of Ardea. Iredale's (1911) proposal was based on the understanding that the name Antigone was preoccupied by Antigone Gray, 1853 in Mollusca, however Brasil (1912) believed that this was not the case and the name Antigone was available for the work of Reichenbach (1853). As such we follow the work of Krajewski et al. (2010) and others in placing these species in the genus Antigone, and do not include the subgenus Mattewsia.

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Sturt Plateau (STU), Tanami (TAN), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Wet Tropics (WT)

General References

Brasil, L. 1912. On the generic names Antigone and Mathewsia. Austral Avian Records 1(5): 122-123

Gray, J.E. 1847. A list of the Genera of Recent Mollusca, their Synonyms and Types. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 15: 129-242 [184]

Iredale, T. 1911. A new generic name for the Australian Crane. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 27: 47 [47]

Krajewski, C. 1989. Phylogenetic relationships among cranes (Gruiformes: Gruidae) based on DNA hybridization. Auk 106: 603-618

Krajewski, C., Sipiorski, J.T. & Anderson, E. 2010. Complete mitochondrial genome sequences and the phylogeny of Cranes (Gruiformes: Gruidae). Auk 127(2): 440-452

Perry, G. 1810. Arcana; or The Museum of Natural History: containing the most recent discovered objects. Embellished with coloured plates, and corresponding descriptions; with extracts relating to animals, and remarks of celebrated travellers; combining a general survey of nature. London : J. Stratford Vol. 1 84 pls & accompanying text. [Publication dated as 1810–1811, pages and plates not numbered. See Mathews & Iredale (1912) for details of publication dates.] [pl. 22, two following pages] (page numbering follows Mathews & Iredale (1912).)

Peters, J.L. 1934. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 2 xvii 401 pp. [150]

Reichenbach, L. 1853. Handbuch der speciellen Ornithologie. Dresden : Expedition der Vollständigsten Naturgeschichte Lief. 3 xxxi pp. [publication dated as 1852]

History of changes