Beginning an end to 63 years of uncertainty: The Neotropical parakeets known as Pyrrhura picta and P. leucotis comprise more than two species

Patterns of geographical variation in plumage and morphometrics of the 13 t axa of Neotropical parakeets currently classified as subspecies of either P yrrhura picta or P. leucotis were assessed from 257 specimens. The 13 taxa and the species with which they are usually aligned are: "picta" group-pict a, amazonum, lucianii, roseifrons, caeruleiceps, subandina, pantchenkoi, ei senmanni; and "leucotis" group-leucotis, pfrimeri, griseipectus, emma and a uricularis. Characters varying in clear, if irregular, geographical pattern s were colors and patterns of the pileum, lores, feathered ocular ring, ear coverts and cheeks, pattern of feather edging on the underparts, and lengt hs of maxilla and wing. The main findings are (a) the prevalent taxonomy tr eating all taxa as subspecies of either picta or leurcotis should be discar ded because it unduly emphasizes the concordance between patterning on the underparts and cheek color at the expense of variation in other informative characters such as the color and pattern of the pileum, lores, and feather ed ocular ring; (b) subandina and pfrimeri are so distinct that phenotypica lly they stand apart as much from each other as they do from other taxa in the group; (c) treatment of two near-identical taxa with the "leucotis" pat tern of underparts and cheeks, eisenmanni from Panama and caeruleiceps from northwestern Colombia, as subspecies of picta has confused understanding o f variation, taxonomy and biogeography; (d) auricularis and pantchenkoi are not diagnosable and should be synonymized with, respectively, enma and cae ruleiceps; and (e) closer study is needed of the variable western Amazonian populations here tentatively maintained as lucianii and roseifrons to dete rmine how many taxa are involved and the nature of any intergradation betwe en them. Overall, the biological inappropriateness of the prevalent two-spe cies arrangement has been highlighted as has the need for phylogenetic anal yses to determine relationships among the taxa studied as well as their rel ationships to the rest of Pyrrhura. An interim systematic arrangement is su ggested based on the phylogenetic species concept. Variation in Amazonian p opulations will be examined more closely in a separate paper.