Indian Blue Robin

SCI Name:  Larvivora brunnea
Protonym:  Larvivora brunnea J.Asiat.Soc.Bengal 6 p.102
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Muscicapidae / Larvivora
Taxonomy Code:  inbrob1
Type Locality:  Nepal.
Author:  Hodgson
Publish Year:  1837
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

LARVIVORA
(Muscicapidae; Ϯ Siberian Blue Robin L. cyane) Mod. L. larva  caterpillar, larvae  < L. larva  spectre, mask; L. -vorus  -eating  < vorare  to devour; "CRATEROPODINÆ.  Genus Larvivora, nobis.  Bill equal to head, subcylindric, straight and slender; at base rather broader than high, and gradually narrowed; ridge considerably keeled: upper mandible rather longer than the lower, and vaguely inclined and notched.  Rictal and nuchal hairs small and feeble.  Wings, tail, and nares as in Turdus, but the two former somewhat less developed.  Tarsi elevate, slender, nearly smooth: toes, all of them, compressed; lateral fores and hind sub-equal; exterior fore connected to the first joint.  Nails, moderately arched and rather acute.   1st Species.  L. Cyana; blue Larvivora, nobis.   ...   2nd Species.  L. Brunnea; brown Larvivora, nobis.  ...  These birds differ conspicuously from Tesia (SWAINSON'S Aipunemia?) by stronger wings and tail, by their less cylindric and less entire bill, and by their open meruline nares. They have much of the aspect of the Sylviadæ, but are essentially terrestrial. Do they not constitute the oriental type of the American Drymophilæ? and do they not serve, in a remarkable manner, to connect the Merulinæ and the Crateropodinæ?   ...   From the number of insect nests and larvæ found in their stomachs, I have called the genus Larvivora." (Hodgson 1837).
Var. Lavivora.
Synon. Icoturus, Pseudaedon.

larvivora / larvivorus
Mod. L. larva caterpillar, larvae  < L. larva  spectre, mask; L. -vorus -eating  < vorare  to devour.

brunnea
Mod. L. brunneus  brown  < Med. L. brunius  brown.

SUBSPECIES

Indian Blue Robin (brunnea)
SCI Name: Larvivora brunnea brunnea
brunnea
Mod. L. brunneus  brown  < Med. L. brunius  brown.

Indian Blue Robin (wickhami)
SCI Name: Larvivora brunnea wickhami
wickhami
Percy Frederic Wickham (1869-1949) British civil servant, engineer in Burma, collector, ornithologist (subsp. Larvivora brunnea, syn. Lophura nycthemera).