Myrmoborus Explained

Myrmoborus is a genus of passerine birds in the antbird family, Thamnophilidae.

The genus was erected by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis and Ferdinand Heine in 1860 with the white-browed antbird as the type species.^{[1] [2]} The genus name is a combination of two Greek words: murmos, meaning "ant" and -boros (from "bibros"), meaning "-devouring".^[3]

The genus contains five species:^[4]

• White-browed antbird, Myrmoborus leucophrys (Tschudi, 1844)
• Ash-breasted antbird, Myrmoborus lugubris (Cabanis, 1847)
• Black-tailed antbird, Myrmoborus melanurus (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1866)
• Black-faced antbird, Myrmoborus myotherinus (Spix, 1825)
• White-lined antbird, Myrmoborus lophotes (Hellmayr & Seilern, 1914)

The white-lined antbird was previously placed in the genus Percnostola but a genetic study published in 2013 found that it is embedded within Myrmoborus.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Book: Cabanis . Jean . Jean Cabanis . Heine . Ferdinand . Ferdinand Heine . 1860 . Museum Heineanum : Verzeichniss der ornithologischen Sammlung des Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine, auf Gut St. Burchard vor Halberstadt . 2 . German, Latin . Halberstadt . R. Frantz . 9 .
2. Book: Peters . James Lee . James L. Peters . 1951 . Check-list of Birds of the World . 7 . Museum of Comparative Zoology . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 220 .
3. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 264 .
4. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . 2018 . Antbirds . World Bird List Version 8.1 . International Ornithologists' Union . 2 February 2018 .
5. Isler . M.L. . Bravo . G.A. . Brumfield . R.T. . 2013 . Taxonomic revision of Myrmeciza (Aves: Passeriformes: Thamnophilidae) into 12 genera based on phylogenetic, morphological, behavioral, and ecological data . Zootaxa . 3717 . 4 . 469–497 . 10.11646/zootaxa.3717.4.3 . 26176119 .