| Pithecine Taxonomy and Geographic Distribution Silva Júnior, J.S. & W.B. Figueiredo The pitheciine group of seed predators is composed of three genera: Pithecia, Chiropotes and Cacajao, all with essentially Amazonian geographic distributions. Chiropotes and Cacajao are mutually exclusive but Pithecia is widely sympatric with both. Parapatric distribution patterns are most common for taxa from these genera, except in a few forms of Cacajao, which exhibit apparent allopatric or disjointed distributions. The genus Pithecia is composed of eight terminal taxa, divided into two groups of species. Five valid species, three of them composed of two subspecies, are currently recognized. Pithecia has an ample distribution, being absent only from northwestern Amazonia and the region located to the south of the Amazon river and east of the river Xingu. The genus Chiropotes is composed of five species. This genus occurs throughout eastern Amazonia, east of the rivers Orinoco-Negro and Madeira. The genus Cacajao comprises six taxa, and occurs in the flooded forests of western Amazonia. Two species of Cacajao are recognized, one comprises two subspecies, and the other four. Assessment of the diversity and geographic distribution of this group is hindered by undersampling and misinterpretation of species and subspecies concepts. Chiropotes is the only genus that has been revised in recent years using multidisciplinary techniques. Revisions for Pithecia and Cacajao date back almost 20 years, both genera now require systematic revisions using new samples and investigation methods. voltar a programação do simpósio |