The eremomelas are a genus, Eremomela, of passerines in the cisticola family Cisticolidae. The genus was previously placed with the larger Old World warbler family Sylviidae prior to that genus being broken up into several families. The genus contains eleven species, all of which are found in sub-Saharan Africa. They occupy a range of habitats, from arid scrub to lowland tropical forest. They are intermediate in appearance between crombecs and apalis, and measure between in length. The sexes are alike in size and plumage.
The genus was erected by the Swedish zoologist Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1850. The type species is the yellow-bellied eremomela (Eremomela icteropygialis).[1] [2] The word Eremomela comes from the Ancient Greek erēmos for "desert" and melos for "song" or "melody".[3]
The genus contains 11 species:[4]
| Image | Common Name | Scientific Name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eremomela icteropygialis | Africa south of the Sahara | ||
| Eremomela salvadorii | Zaire, Gabon, Angola and Zambia | ||
| Eremomela flavicrissalis | Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. | ||
| Eremomela pusilla | southern Mauritania and Senegal to north western Cameroon, south-western Chad and far north-western Central African Republic | ||
| Eremomela canescens | Kenya and Ethiopia to Cameroon. | ||
| Eremomela scotops | Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Republic of the Congo, DRC, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe | ||
| Eremomela gregalis | Namibia and South Africa. | ||
| Eremomela usticollis | Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. | ||
| Eremomela badiceps | African tropical rainforest. | ||
| Eremomela turneri | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Uganda. | ||
| Eremomela atricollis | Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. | ||