The genus Drymophila was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1824.[2] The type species is the ferruginous antbird.[3] The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek words drumos for "wood" or "copse" and philos "fond of".[4]
Taxonomy and systematics
Extant species
The genus Drymophila contains the following eleven species:[5]
Six of the Drymophila species are associated with regions of southeastern Brazil; two of these - Bertoni's and dusky-tailed antbird - also range into eastern Paraguay and extreme northeastern Argentina.
Even at their highest diversity in Brazil's Mata Atlântica, the species are almost completely parapatric, in some cases like the dusky-tailed and scaled antbird even to exclusive habitat preferences. Of course, the rampant deforestation in that region may obscure that there has been more overlap in the past. In any case, habitat fragments strongly tend to hold at most a single species.[9]
D. devillei, the striated antbird, is a species of the southwestern quadrant of the Amazon Basin, and a disjunct population lives in north-western Ecuador and adjacent parts of Colombia.
Footnotes
^"Thamnophilidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
Rajão, Henrique & Cerqueira, Rui (2006): Distribuição altitudinal e simpatria das aves do gênero Drymophila Swainson (Passeriformes, Thamnophilidae) na Mata Atlântica [Elevational distribution and sympatry of birds of the genus Drymophila Swainson (Passeriformes, Thamnophilidae) in the Atlantic forest]. [Portuguese with English abstract] Revista Brasileira de Zoologia23(3): 597–607. doi:10.1590/S0101-81752006000300002PDF fulltext