Argya is a genus of passerine birds in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae. The species are distributed across Africa and southern Asia and are typically fairly large, long-tailed birds that forage in noisy groups. Members of this genus were formerly placed in the genera Turdoides and Garrulax.
Most of the species now placed in the genus Argya were previously assigned to the genus Turdoides. Following the publication of a molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, Turdoides was split and species were moved to the resurrected genus Argya that had been erected by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1831.[1] [2] [3] The name is from the Latin argutus meaning "noisy".[4] Lesson did not specify a type species but this was designated as the Arabian babbler (Argya squamiceps) by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1855.[5] [6]
The following cladogram showing the phylogenetic relationships between the species is based on a study by Alice Cibois and collaborators that was published in 2018. The Iraq babbler (Argya altirostris) and the orange-billed babbler (Argya rufescens) were not included in the study.[1] The Afghan babbler (Argya huttoni) has been split from the common babbler.[2]
The genus contains 16 species:[2] [7]
| Image | Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argya malcolmi | India | ||
| Argya cinereifrons | Sri Lanka | ||
| Argya squamiceps | United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen and western Saudi Arabia | ||
| Argya fulva | Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, and Tunisia. | ||
| Argya gularis | Myanmar. | ||
| Argya earlei | Pakistan to Myanmar. | ||
| Argya altirostris | Iraq and south-western Iran | ||
| Argya caudata | India. | ||
| Argya huttoni | southeastern Iraq to south western Pakistan. | ||
| Argya rubiginosa | Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. | ||
| Argya aylmeri | Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania. | ||
| Argya affinis | southern India and Sri Lanka. | ||
| Argya striata | India | ||
| Argya rufescens | Sri Lanka. | ||
| Argya longirostris | Bangladesh, Nepal, Northeast India and possibly Myanmar | ||
| Argya subrufa | India | ||