The black-throated antbird (Myrmophylax atrothorax) is a species of passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.[2]
The black-throated antbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1779.[3] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.[4] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Formicarius attothorax in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.[5] (The specific epithet's spelling was later corrected to atrothorax). The type locality is the city of Cayenne in French Guiana.[6]
The black-throated antbird was usually placed in the genus Myrmeciza but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 found that the genus was polyphyletic.[7] In the resulting rearrangement to create monophyletic genera the black-throated antbird was moved to the resurrected genus Myrmophylax which had originally been introduced by the American ornithologist W. E. Clyde Todd in 1927.[2][8] The generic name Myrmophylax combines the Ancient Greek murmos meaning "ant" and phulax meaning "watcher" or "observer". The specific epithet atrothorax is from the Latin ater meaning "black" and thorax meaning "breast".[9]
Three additional subspecies have been proposed but they are considered color morphs of M. a. melanura.[10][11]
The black-throated antbird is 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long and weighs 14 to 18 g (0.49 to 0.63 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies M. a. atrothorax have a gray face. Their crown and upperparts are dark yellowish olive-brown that becomes blackish on the rump, with a white patch between the shoulders. Their tail is blackish gray. Their wings are dark yellowish olive-brown with black and white tips on the coverts. The center of their throat and breast are black and the rest of their underparts gray. Adult females have a dull reddish yellow-brown crown and upperparts and dark brown wings with light buff tips on the coverts. Their chin and upper throat are white. The rest of their underparts are cinnamon-rufous with dark olive-brown flanks and crissum. Both sexes have gray legs.[10][12]
Subspecies M. a. metae has gray edges on the black breast feathers, giving a spotty appearance. M. a. tenebrosa has much darker upperparts than the nominate with much smaller light tips on the wing coverts. Males have blackish gray flanks and belly; females are darker all over than the nominate. M. a. maynana males have sooty gray upperparts with a faint brownish wash. M. a. melanura is quite variable in its differences from the nominate. In most areas males have a grayer forecrown and supercilium, an olive or light russet-brown rump, sooty gray uppertail coverts, and a paler belly. Females have a white belly. The both sexes in the population in eastern Peru and western Brazil have darker underparts, and males are mostly black below. Males in the lower Rio Tapajós basin of eastern Brazil have white spots on the black breast.[10][12][13][14]