Integrating voice and phenotype in a revision of the brush cuckoo Cacomantis variolosus (Aves: Cuculidae) complex Author Wu, Meng Yue 0000-0002-8562-7667 National University of Singapore, Department of Biological Sciences, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore. & dbswmy @ nus. edu. sg; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 8562 - 7667 dbswmy@nus.edu.sg Author Schodde, Richard 0000-0002-8255-4773 Australian National Wildlife Collection, National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia. rschodde @ grapevine. com. au; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 8255 - 4773 rschodde@grapevine.com.au Author Rheindt, Frank E. 0000-0001-8946-7085 National University of Singapore, Department of Biological Sciences, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore. & dbsrfe @ nus. edu. sg; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 8946 - 7085 dbsrfe@nus.edu.sg text Zootaxa 2022 2022-01-12 5091 1 69 106 journal article 2633 10.11646/zootaxa.5091.1.3 22e66303-82d5-4c5d-b688-a4d511f551de 1175-5326 5840523 964647F3-9828-4E34-A495-67E03BAFC2EF 4.5 Cacomantis blandus Rothschild & Hartert, 1914b Range: Admiralty Islands ( Manus ) . Diagnosis: main song of one type , elements long and flattened and rather slow-paced (n = 2, Fig. 2 ); basic morph of Admiralties morphotype (see 3.2.2.(4) above); body small and tail proportionally mid-length: wing c. 106–115 mm , tail/wing ratio 0.96–1.02 ( Table 2 ); barred females with dorsa dully barred dusky on greyish cinnamon, and ventral white distinct, barred discretely black without cinnamon wash; juveniles intermediate in depth of tones and density of markings, but whiter ventrally than in other differentiates (n = 1). Element shape of song notes is unique except for those in the Solomon differentiate C. addendus ( Fig. 2 ; see below). The bill is also distinctively broad, and this, together with tail proportions, are shared with Bismarck populations and arguably indicative of its derivation ( Table 2 ; also Mayr & Diamond 2001: 235 ). The greyer dorsum and sharply demarcated grey-and-rufous ventral surface in C. blandus are also unique in the complex, resembling east Asian C. merulinus and leading Rothschild & Hartert (1914b) to query affinities. White barring in outer rectrices, however, is altogether different—fine teeth in blandus and complete diagonal bars in merulinus . So is the main song, which in merulinus is sepulcralis -like except for falling away in a bubbled jumble of notes at the end. C. blandus has been treated as a subspecies of variolosus by all reviewers since Hartert (1925) , based on morphology alone; and its respective phenotypic and vocal similarities to merulinus and Solomon addendus could be either convergent or retained ancestral traits.