Systematics

Ploceus holoxanthus Hartlaub, 1891, Abhandlungen der Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins zu Bremen 12:22. — Mtoni [near Bagamoyo, eastern Tanganyika].

The holotype is an adult male, collected in January (7 LeCroy, M. (2014). Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, and Corvidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 393:1–165. Close ) or March (4 Shelley, G. E. (1905). The Birds of Africa Comprising All the Species which Occur in the Ethiopian Region. Vol. 4. R. H. Porter, London. Close ) 1890 by Friedrich Bohndorff, and held at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH 724738) (7 LeCroy, M. (2014). Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, and Corvidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 393:1–165. Close ). January is probably correct for the holotype and female, while March may refer to the additional specimens that Shelley examined.

Description History

The Ruvu Weaver was described by Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub in 1891, based on two specimens collected by Friedrich Bohndorff, from Mtoni on the Kingani (now Ruvu) River, Tanzania (3 Hartlaub, G. (1891). Vierter Beitrag zur Ornithologie der östlich-äquatorialen Länder und der östlichen Küstengebiete Afrikas. Abhandlungen der Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins zu Bremen 12:1-46. Close ). Most authors accepted this new species initially, but in 1916, Zedlitz (8 Zedlitz, O. Graf. (1916). Das Süd-Somaliland als zoogeographisches Gebiet: Eine ornithologische Studie (Schluss). Journal fur Ornithologie 64:1–119. Close ) wrote an extensive review of several golden weavers, claiming that Ruvu Weaver was not distinguishable from the African Golden-Weaver (Ploceus subaureus). At this time no one (including Zedlitz) realized that they had not seen the actual Ruvu Weaver specimens, but instead were looking at African Golden-Weaver specimens (1 Oschadleus, H. D., S. Andersson, and N. E. Baker (2021). History and biology of the reassigned Ruvu Weaver Ploceus holoxanthus. Scopus 41(1):1–12. Close ). Thereafter, other authors followed Zedlitz in keeping Ruvu Weaver as a synonym of African Golden-Weaver. The Ruvu and Yellow Weavers are very similar in plumage, and in specimens the distinctly different eye colors of males is not apparent.

After describing the Ruvu Weaver, Hartlaub sent the specimens to Tring (before 1905 when Shelley studied them; 4 Shelley, G. E. (1905). The Birds of Africa Comprising All the Species which Occur in the Ethiopian Region. Vol. 4. R. H. Porter, London. Close ). In 1934 most of Rothschild's collection at Tring was sold to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where the Ruvu Weaver specimens are still housed (7 LeCroy, M. (2014). Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, and Corvidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 393:1–165. Close ). Shelley (4 Shelley, G. E. (1905). The Birds of Africa Comprising All the Species which Occur in the Ethiopian Region. Vol. 4. R. H. Porter, London. Close ) had noted that there were four specimens, but LeCroy (7 LeCroy, M. (2014). Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, and Corvidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 393:1–165. Close ) only listed two, the holotype and a female; Shelley’s two additional specimens were either lost, or are still in a museum somewhere, or were misidentified (but this is less likely because of his detailed description). The missing specimens are not in the Bremen Museum collection, where many of Hartlaub's other type specimens are (9 Sánchez Osés, C. (2010). Vogeltypen der ornithologischen Sammlung im Übersee-Museum Bremen. Jahrbuch 16. Übersee-Museum Bremen S.21–72. Close ).

From 2003, birds resembling the Ruvu Weaver have been seen and photographed increasingly. Thus, samples of Ruvu Weaver were included in a genetic study on the Ploceidae (10 Fjeldså, J., L. Christidis, and P. G. P. Ericson (2020). The Largest Avian Radiation: the Evolution of Perching Birds, or the Order Passeriformes. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ), which showed that it is a valid species, and not closely related to African Golden-Weaver, in spite of a close plumage resemblance. Fjeldså et al. (10 Fjeldså, J., L. Christidis, and P. G. P. Ericson (2020). The Largest Avian Radiation: the Evolution of Perching Birds, or the Order Passeriformes. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ) placed Ruvu Weaver in the genus Textor.

Ruvu Weaver has a limited global range, and no geographic variation is known.

In a phylogenetic study using multiple genetic markers, Ruvu Weaver was found to be very closely related to Southern Brown-throated Weaver (Ploceus xanthopterus) and Kilombero Weaver (Ploceus burnieri), though relationships among these three species was not resolved (10 Fjeldså, J., L. Christidis, and P. G. P. Ericson (2020). The Largest Avian Radiation: the Evolution of Perching Birds, or the Order Passeriformes. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ). The males of these recently diverged weaver species are bright yellow with varying amounts of orange or brown on the face, and the females all have a two-colored bill (1 Oschadleus, H. D., S. Andersson, and N. E. Baker (2021). History and biology of the reassigned Ruvu Weaver Ploceus holoxanthus. Scopus 41(1):1–12. Close ). It appears that these three species were part of a clade that also included Golden Palm Weaver (Ploceus bojeri), Taveta Golden-Weaver (Ploceus castaneiceps), and Black-headed Weaver (Ploceus melanocephalus), among several others (10 Fjeldså, J., L. Christidis, and P. G. P. Ericson (2020). The Largest Avian Radiation: the Evolution of Perching Birds, or the Order Passeriformes. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ). Further work is needed to fully resolve the relationships among all of these species.

In his description of this species, Hartlaub noted it was the yellowest of all weavers, thus giving a Greek name meaning "entirely yellow," holoxanthus, with holos meaning complete or entire, and xanthos, meaning yellow (3 Hartlaub, G. (1891). Vierter Beitrag zur Ornithologie der östlich-äquatorialen Länder und der östlichen Küstengebiete Afrikas. Abhandlungen der Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins zu Bremen 12:1-46. Close ).