Unnoticed anomaly in the holotype of Grallaria rufocinerea (Myrmotheridae) deprives romeroana Hernández-Camacho Rodríguez, 1979 of diagnosability

摘要

During the last four decades, Grallaria rufocinerea has been treated as a polytypic taxon with two subspecies: the nominate from the north, and romeroana from the south of its peninsula-like range in the Northern Andes. The condition of the type specimen of rufocinerea led to the misunderstanding that northern birds had a gray throat while lacking a scaling pattern on the underparts, but this is not the case. Here, I demonstrate that romeroana does not represent a diagnostic, separate population from the nominate form. Because both names refer to individuals that do not differ phenotypically, I recommend treating romeroana as a junior synonym. The scarcity of specimens and descriptions based on a single specimen has complicated taxonomy in this case.