rather, the lesser whitethroat and its closest relatives hume's whitethroat and the small whitethroat appear more related to a group of morphologically quite dissimilar species. these vary much in size and color pattern, but also lack chestnut wing patches and have a strong contrast between the usually dark head sides and the white or whitish throat. the latter group occurs from the southern parts of the lesser whitethroat complex' range into africa and include the orphean warbler group, the arabian warbler, and the brown and yemen warblers sometimes placed in "parisoma". thus, it rather appears as if the divergence of the lesser whitethroat complex and its closest living relatives is more ancient than assumed, and that it did not involve separation by ice sheets building up in europe, but by aridification of the arabian region (which also occurred throughout the ice ages).