White-cheeked antbird

The white-cheeked antbird (Gymnopithys leucaspis) is an insectivorous bird in the antbird family Thamnophilidae. It is found to the east of the Andes in Ecuador, Colombia, northern Peru and western Brazil. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

White-cheeked antbird
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thamnophilidae
Genus: Gymnopithys
Species:
G. leucaspis
Binomial name
Gymnopithys leucaspis
(Sclater, PL, 1855)

The English zoologist Philip Sclater described the white-cheeked antbird in 1855 and coined the binomial name Myrmeciza leucaspis.[2] It is now placed in the genus Gymnopithys which was introduced by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1857.[3]

There are four subspecies:[4]

  • G. l. leucaspis (Sclater, PL, 1855) – east Colombia
  • G. l. castaneus Zimmer, JT, 1937 – east Ecuador and northeast Peru
  • G. l. peruanus Zimmer, JT, 1937 – north Peru
  • G. l. lateralis Todd, 1927 – northwest Amazonian Brazil

The white-cheeked antbird was formerly considered as conspecific with the bicolored antbird. They were split into separate species based on the results of a 2007 genetic study that found that the white-cheeked antbird was more similar to the rufous-throated antbird than it was to the bicolored antbird.[5][6]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Gymnopithys leucaspis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22730404A93852627.en.
  2. Sclater, Philip L. (1854). "Descriptions of six new species of birds of the subfamily Formicarinae". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 22 (275): 253–255 [253] Plate 70. The title page gives the year 1854 but the volume was not published until the following year.
  3. Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1857). "Catalogue des oiseaux recuellis a Cayenne". Bulletin de la Société linnéenne de Normandie (in French). 2: 29–40 [35].
  4. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Antbirds". World Bird List Version 8.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  5. Brumfield, R.T.; Tello, J.G.; Cheviron, Z.A.; Carling, M.D.; Crochet, N.; Rosenberg, K.V. (2007). "Phylogenetic conservatism and antiquity of a tropical specialization: Army-ant-following in the typical antbirds (Thamnophilidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 45 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.07.019.
  6. Freeman, Ben (September 2013). "Proposal (587): Split Gymnopithys leucaspis into two species". South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
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