The brown-chested alethe (''Chamaetylas poliocephala'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the Old World flycatcher family

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica'') and north ...

. It has a discontinuous range of presence across the African tropical rainforest. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Description TSMF is generally found in large ...

and subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

Taxonomy

The brown-chested alethe was

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

in 1850 by the French naturalist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857) was a French naturalist and ornithology, ornithologist, and a nephew of Napoleon. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal ...

based on a manuscript by Coenraad Temminck. Bonaparte gave the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

as ''Trichophorus (Griniger)'' and the

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

as Africa. The locality has been restricted to the island of

Bioko Bioko (; ; ; historically known as Fernando Pó, ) is an island of Equatorial Guinea. It is located south of the coast of Cameroon, and northwest of the northernmost part of mainland Equatorial Guinea. Malabo, on the north coast of the is ...

(formally Fernando Po). The specific epithet combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''polios'' meaning "grey" with ''-kephalos'' meaning "-headed". The brown-chested alethe is now one of four species placed in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Chamaetylas ''Chamaetylas'' is a genus of small, mainly insectivorous birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae that are native to sub-Saharan Africa. The genus was introduced by the German ornithologist Ferdinand Heine in 1860 with the type spe ...

'' that was introduced in 1860 by

Ferdinand Heine Jakob Gottlieb Ferdinand Heine (9 March 1809 in Halberstadt – 28 March 1894) was a German ornithologist and collector. Heine had one of the largest private collection of birds in the mid-19th century. The collection now housed at the Heineanum ...

. Nine

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognised: * ''C. p. poliocephala'' ( Bonaparte, 1850) – Sierra Leone to Ghana * ''C. p. compsonota'' ( Cassin, 1859) – south Nigeria to southwest Central African Republic, northwest Angola and Bioko * ''C. p. hallae'' ( Traylor, 1961) – west Angola * ''C. p. giloensis'' (Cunningham-Van Someren & Schifter, 1981) – south Sudan * ''C. p. carruthersi'' ( Ogilvie-Grant, 1906) – southeast Central African Republic, northeast DR Congo, Uganda and west Kenya * ''C. p. akeleyae'' (Dearborn, 1909) – central Kenya * ''C. p. vandeweghei'' (

Prigogine Prigozhin or Prigogine () is a masculine East Slavic surname originating from the adjective ''prigozhii'', meaning ''useful'', ''suitable'', ''nice''; its feminine counterpart is Prigozhina. The surname may refer to the following notable people: ...

, 1984) – Rwanda and Burundi * ''C. p. kungwensis'' ( Moreau, 1941) – west Tanzania * ''C. p. ufipae'' (Moreau, 1942) – southeast DR Congo and southwest Tanzania

References

brown-chested alethe Birds of the Gulf of Guinea Birds of the African tropical rainforest brown-chested alethe brown-chested alethe Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Muscicapidae-stub