White-bellied Antbird

About the White-bellied Antbird

The white-bellied antbird (Myrmeciza longipes), is a passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Panama, on Trinidad, and across northern South America. It is also called Swainson's antcatcher (usually in historical sources) after William Swainson, who first described it scientifically.

The white-bellied antbird was described by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1825 and given the binomial name Drymophila longipes. It was moved to genus Myrmeciza in 1841 by the English zoologist George Robert Gray with it as the type species. The genus formerly included more than 20 species. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 found that Myrmeciza, as then defined, was polyphyletic. In the resulting rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, most of the species then in Myrmeciza were moved to 12 other genera leaving the white-bellied antbird as only the only member of the genus.

The name Myrmeciza derives from the Greek "myrmeco-" (ant) and "-izo" (ambush). The specific epithet also comes from Greek, "longi-" (long) and "-pes" (foot). Both are somewhat inaccurate, as the species is... Wikipedia →