lateral rectrices, the under parts black with flanks white or light gray; or, plain brown or olive above (sometimes with lower back and rump rufescent), the wing-coverts spotted with white, under parts paler brownish, the throat black spotted or streaked with white. Sexes very differently colored, adult females being brown or olive above, paler brownish, buffy, or whitish beneath.[1]
Range. — Honduras to Cayenne and Amazon Valley. (Several species.)[2]
KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF MYRMOPAGIS.
a. General color black, or black and slate color, and white (no brown).
- b. Flanks white; under wing-coverts immaculate white.
- c. Upper parts black or slate-black. (Southern Honduras to Venezuela and western Ecuadór.)
Myrmopagis melæna, adult male (p. 68).
- cc. Upper parts slate-gray. (Guiana, Trinidád, and Amazon Valley.)
Myrmopagis axillaris, adult male (extralimital).[3]
- bb. Flanks slate color, like back, etc.; under wing-coverts partly black.
- c. Tail shorter (about 28 mm.); lesser and middle wing-coverts partly slate color, with anterior portion of the area much more extensively white. (Bolivia to eastern Ecuadór.)
Myrmopagis menetriesii, adult male (extralimital).[4]
- cc. Tail longer (33.5-38 mm.); lesser and middle wing-coverts black tipped with white, with anterior portion of the area much less extensively white. (Guatemala to Colombia and Venezuela.)
Myrmopagis schisticolor, adult male (p. 70).
aa. General color olive-brownish (no black except, sometimes, on throat).
- b. Throat black and white. (Southern Honduras to western Ecuadór.)
Myrmopagis fulviventris, adult male (p. 73).
- bb. Throat plain buff or buffy whitish.
- c. Middle and greater wing-coverts distinctly tipped with ochraceous-buff.
Myrmopagis fulviventris, adult female (p. 74).
- ↑ Species examined are: Myrmopagis gutturalis (Sclater and Salvin), M. fulviventris (Lawrence), Myrmopagis ornata (Sclater), M. menetriesii (D'Orbigny), M. Schisticolor (Lawrence), M. axillaris (Vieillot), and M. melsena (Sclater).
- ↑ The range of the group and number of species composing it are matters of uncertainty owing to poor representation of the latter in the material examined.
- ↑ Myrmothera axillaris Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. d'Hist. Nat., xii, 1817, 113 (Guiana). — Formicivora axillaris Cabanis, in Wiegm. Archiv für Naturg., 1847, pt. 1, 226. — M[yrmophila] axillaris Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, July, 1859, 13. — Myrmotherula axillaris Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1858, 236, part; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XV, 1890, 238. — Myrmotherula axillaris axillaris Hellmayr, Novit. Zool., xiv, 1907, 22 (Itaituba, Brazil; crit.), 32 (Obidos, Brazil), 69 (Teffe, Brazil; crit.), 383 (Humaytha and Borba, Rio Madeira, Brazil; crit.). — M[yiotliera fuliginosa Lichtenstein, Verz. Doubl., 1823, 45, part (Cayenne; Brazil).
- ↑ Myrmothera menetriesii D'Orbigny, Voy. Am. Mérid., Ois., 1839, 184 (Cochabamba, Bolivia) .— Fonnicivora menetriesi Cabanis, in Wiegm. Archiv für Naturg., 1847, pt. i, 226; Menegaux and Hellmayr, Bull. Soc. Philom., 1906, 51 (crit.; type from Yuracares, Belinda, in Paris Mus.). — Myrmotherula menetriesi Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1858, 237; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 240, part. — M[yrmophila] menetriesi Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, July, 1859, 13, footnote. — Myrmotherula boliviana Berlepsch, Journ. für Orn., Jan., 1901, 96 (San Mateo, n. Bolivia; coll. Count von Berlepsch). (See footnote on p. 70 of present work.)
