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Myrmeciza antbirds (1 Viewer)

I know I should get out more, but, according to Cory & Hellmayr, 1924, Catal. Birds Americas, III, p. 45, Diallactes Reichenbach, 1850, is a synonym of Taraba Lesson, 1830, with type Taraba major (Vieillot, 1816).

OK, rummaging around I now see Sclater (1890) subsequently made that designation of the type species, of this genus which was previously used for Taraba major and Myrmeciza melanoceps. Thanks. Maybe I should get out less?

how can Inundicola melanoceps (von Spix, 1825) (the type of Inundicola Isler et al., 2013) be the type of Hafferia Isler et al., 2013, of which the type if Hafferia immaculata (de La Fresnaye, 1845)? Or have Hafferia and Inundicola been merged already?

TIF website merges these two genera on the basis that: "The placeholder Myrmeciza3 is replaced by Hafferia (Isler et al. suggest a further split of two species into Inundicola)." and "7.The next group had previously been treated as Myrmeciza3 in lieu of a proper name. Well, Isler et al. (2013) gave it two names: Hafferia (Isler et al., type immaculata) and Inundicola (Bravo et al., type melanoceps). Priority goes to Hafferia. I'm not convinced there is so much difference as to justify two genera, so I'm putting them all in one genus."

In a 2012 paper, I had suggested even more widespread culling of genera in this sub-group: "White-bellied Antbird M. longipes, was not included in either of these [previous phylogenetic] studies, but it would be surprising if it grouped with immaculata, fortis, melanoceps and goeldii. If that is the case, another genus name will ultimately be needed for the group studied here. Merging these birds with the apparently related Black-headed
Antbird Percnostola rufifrons, the Pyriglena fire-eyes and / or Gymnocichla at generic level may be necessary based on data presented by Brumfield et al. (2007). Notably, ellisiana was originally described in Pyriglena by Sclater (1855) so such a treatment would not be novel. Moreover, M. goeldii shares the bright red eye of Pyriglena and Percnostola rufifrons (others in the clade possess red-brown or rufous to brownish irides) and all of the Pyriglena
/ Gymnocichla / Myrmeciza clade have fairly uniform black male and brownish female plumages, with some species having white interscapular patches and wing-covert fringes. Songs of Pyriglena and Gymnocichla are similarly structured to those of Myrmeciza, involving repeated notes at more or less the same frequency and with a similar note shape to zeledoni
and macrorhyncha (e.g., Fig. 5)."
 
Browsing the antbirds I came across the genus Akletos Dunajewski, 1948, the type of which is Akletos peruvianus Dunajewski, 1948, which is apparently the female of Inundicola melanoceps (von Spix, 1825). If so, should Akletos Dunajewski, 1948, replace Inundicola Bravo Isler & Brumfield, 2013?

James - What resource(s) did you use to find this name? Despite the authors' best efforts at locating available names, they obviously did not come across this one.

Thanks
Liam
 
Akletos

As John Boyd noted, it's listed by AOU-SACC under Hybrids and Dubious Taxa:
Akletos peruvianus Dunajewski, 1948. "<> Antbird": described from eastern Peru; considered a synonym (female plumage) of Myrmeciza melanoceps (Meyer de Schauensee 1966).
Dickinson 2003 (H&M3):
Myrmeciza melanoceps
Includes Akletos peruvianus Dunajewski, 1948, a name given to the female of this species.
Dunajewski, A., 1948. New races of the Brown owl, Hedge-Sparrow and a species of Attila; also a new genus of Cotingidae. — Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl., 68: 130-132.
Also, John Penhallurick (World Bird Info):
Synonym
MYRMECIZA MELANOCEPS
Akletos peruviana[sic] Dunajewski,1948,Bulletin of the British Ornithologist's Club,68,pp.130-32. (female).
 
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Liam,
Akletos Dunajewski, 1948, is not in a MS list of genera I made in the early 1980s, so I would probably have come across it first in H&M3 2003. I note it is also referred to in the Richmond Index cards.
James
 
Thanks James & Richard - I wasn't sure if H&M3 had generic synonyms in it, I've only browsed through it once before, briefly. And of course worldbirdinfo is a wonderful resource, though still incomplete, so I don't always expect to find a synonymy here.

Liam
 
I can only quote Joel Cracraft (2012), "The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World is the premier, authoritative list of avian diversity."
 
I wasn't sure if H&M3 had generic synonyms in it, I've only browsed through it once before, briefly

Liam,

H&M is great but it does not have comprehensive info on generic/subgeneric synonyms - so it might not be the resource you are searching for. Types are identifed for all genera (some of which, outside journals, are novel to H&M4) and some synonyms are mentioned in footnotes - but this is certainly not exhaustive.

Aside from those already mentioned in this thread, some other good synonym resources are:

(1) Peter's 16 volume checklist - old-fashioned and inconsistent with respect to synonyms (especially the earlier volumes) but still an excellent resource and downloadable for free in its entirety here:

http://archive.org/details/checklistofbirds12pete

[loads of older synonym-filled books are also downloadable from Internet Archive e.g. works by Gray, Richmond & Waterhouse]

(2) Richmond Index - the extremely useful alphabetical synonym list is here:

http://www.zoonomen.net/cit/RI/Genera/RIGenAZ.html

and the types of all genera considered valid in the checklist can be identified here:

http://zoonomen.net/avtax/frame.html

(3) M. G. Wells World Bird Species Checklist - with alternative English and Scientific names is frustratingly superficial and full of errors and mispellings but has nevertheless done a splendid job of collecting together thousands of synonyms, the vast majority of which can be cross-referenced with the Richmond index for accuracy and completeness.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Bird-...&sr=8-1&keywords=world+bird+species+checklist

...and, on worldbirdinfo this list is very useful as it collects together many (sub)generic synonyms (some of which don't seem to be in the individual species pages); it's great for non-passerines but tails off about half way through the sequence. (to be honest though, I find worldbirdinfo quite a user-unfriendly site so the same information may be more accessible elsewhere):

http://worldbirdinfo.net/Lists/Gene...x?View={CE071473-282C-477C-82ED-5D96A7034960}

Hope at least some of that is helpful,

Andrew
 
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Thanks Andrew - I've certainly referred to the first two references often; I've never heard of the M.G. Wells checklist so I'll see about obtaining a copy - maybe this comes as close to a "go to reference" for generic/subgeneric synonyms as possible.
 
Inundicola

Browsing the antbirds I came across the genus Akletos Dunajewski, 1948, the type of which is Akletos peruvianus Dunajewski, 1948, which is apparently the female of Inundicola melanoceps (von Spix, 1825). If so, should Akletos Dunajewski, 1948, replace Inundicola Bravo Isler & Brumfield, 2013?
Forthcoming...

Isler, Bravo & Brumfield (in press). Inundicola Bravo, Isler, and Brumfield 2013 is a junior synonym of Akletos Dunajewski 1948 (Aves: Passeriformes: Thamnophilidae).
 
Forthcoming...

Isler, Bravo & Brumfield (in press). Inundicola Bravo, Isler, and Brumfield 2013 is a junior synonym of Akletos Dunajewski 1948 (Aves: Passeriformes: Thamnophilidae).

Zootaxa 3779 (3): 399–400 (17 Mar. 2014)
Inundicola Bravo, Isler, and Brumfield 2013 is a junior synonym of Akletos Dunajewski 1948 (Aves: Passeriformes: Thamnophilidae)
MORTON L. ISLER, GUSTAVO A. BRAVO & ROBB T. BRUMFIELD

PDF
 
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