''Gymnopithys'' is a genus of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

birds in the antbird family,

Thamnophilidae The antbirds are a large passerine bird family, Thamnophilidae, found across subtropical and tropical Central and South America, from Mexico to Argentina. There are more than 230 species, known variously as antshrikes, antwrens, antvireos, fire ...

. The species in this genus are specialist

ant-follower Ant followers are birds that feed by following swarms of army ants and take prey flushed by those ants. The best-known ant-followers are 18 species of antbird in the family Thamnophilidae, but other families of birds may follow ants, including thr ...

s that depend on swarms of

army ants The name army ant (or legionary ant or ''marabunta'') is applied to over 200 ant species in different lineages. Because of their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", a huge number of ants forage simultaneously over a limi ...

to flush

arthropods Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, oft ...

out of the leaf litter.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Gymnopithys'' was introduced by the French ornithologist

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 ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte. Life and career ...

in 1857 with the rufous-throated antbird as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

. The name ''Gymnopithys'' combines the

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

''gumnos'' meaning "bare" or "naked" with the name of the antbird genus '' Pithys'' that was erected by the French ornithologist

Louis Pierre Vieillot Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) was a French ornithologist. Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collect ...

in 1818. The white-cheeked antbird and the

bicolored antbird The bicolored antbird (''Gymnopithys bicolor'') is a species of bird in the family Thamnophilidae. It is found in Honduras south to Panama, western Colombia and Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. It is ...

were formerly considered as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

. They were split into separate species based on the results of a genetic study published in 2007 that found that the white-cheeked antbird was more similar to the rufous-throated antbird than it was to the bicolored antbird. The genus contains three species: * Rufous-throated antbird, ''Gymnopithys rufigula'' *

Bicolored antbird The bicolored antbird (''Gymnopithys bicolor'') is a species of bird in the family Thamnophilidae. It is found in Honduras south to Panama, western Colombia and Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. It is ...

, ''Gymnopithys bicolor'' * White-cheeked antbird, ''Gymnopithys leucaspis'' The genus previously included the

white-throated antbird The white-throated antbird (''Oneillornis salvini'') is a species of bird in the family Thamnophilidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil and Peru. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. This species is a specialist ...

and the

lunulated antbird The lunulated antbird (''Oneillornis lunulatus'') is a species of insectivorous bird in the family Thamnophilidae. It is found in Ecuador and Peru. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. This species is a speciali ...

but when a

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2014 found that ''Gymnopithys'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

, these two species were moved to a new genus ''

Oneillornis ''Oneillornis'' is a genus of passerine birds in the family Thamnophilidae. The species are native to the Amazon rainforest of South America. The genus contains two species: * White-throated antbird (''Oneillornis salvini'') * Lunulated antbir ...

'' to create

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

genera.

References

Bird genera Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Thamnophilidae-stub