''Laticilla'' is a

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 ...

of small

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 generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

birds in the family Pellorneidae. Members of the genus are found in Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh. 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 of the

Cisticolidae The family Cisticolidae is a group of about 160 warblers, small passerine birds found mainly in warmer southern regions of the Old World. They were formerly included within the Old World warbler family Sylviidae. This family probably originated ...

published in 2013 found that the rufous-vented grass babbler did not lie within the clade containing the other

prinia Prinia is a genus of small insectivorous birds belonging to the passerine bird family Cisticolidae. They were at one time classed in the Old World warbler family, Sylviidae. The prinias are sometimes referred to as wren-warblers. They are a ...

s but instead belonged to the Pellorneidae. To create

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

genera, the rufous-vented prinia and the closely related swamp grass babbler were placed in the reintroduced genus ''Laticilla'' in the Pellorneidae. The genus ''Laticilla'' had been erected by the English zoologist

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Asiatic Society, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He set about updating the museum ...

in 1845 with the rufous-vented prinia as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

. The genus replaced ''Eurycercus'' that Blyth had introduced in 1844 only to subsequently discover that the name was preoccupied. The name ''Laticilla'' comes from the Latin ''latus'' for "wide" or "broad" and ''cilla'' for "tail".

Species

The genus contains the following species:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q14927696 Pellorneidae Bird genera Birds of South Asia Taxa named by Edward Blyth