Orange-throated Tanager

SCI Name:  Wetmorethraupis sterrhopteron
Protonym:  Wetmorethraupis sterrhopteron Auk 81 p.126
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Thraupidae / Wetmorethraupis
Taxonomy Code:  orttan1
Type Locality:  Chavez Valdivia, near confluence of the Rio Comaina and the Rio Cenepa, lat. 4° 26'' S., long. 78° 11'' W., Depto. Amazonas, Peru.
Author:  Lowery & O''Neill
Publish Year:  1964
IUCN Status:  Vulnerable

DEFINITIONS

WETMORETHRAUPIS
(Thraupidae; Ϯ Orange-throated Tanager W. sterrhopteron) Dr Frank Alexander Wetmore (1886-1978) US ornithologist, systematist, collector; Gr. θραυπις thraupis unknown small bird, perhaps some sort of finch. In ornithology thraupis signifies tanager. "This new tanager, although strikingly distinct (see Frontispiece), is apparently related to the members of the complex of genera that includes Thraupis, Buthraupis, Bangsia, Poecilothraupis, Compsocoma, and Iridisornis. However, it differs so markedly in a number of sharply defined characters from any existing genus that, in addition to representing a new species, it must also be described as a member of a new genus.   Wetmorethraupis gen. nov.  Type-species. — Wetmorethraupis sterrhopteron Lowery and O'Neill.   Diagnosis.—A medium-sized thraupid with feathers of malar region, lower chin, and throat stiff and almost bristly, with a waxy appearance; wing long but tail and tarsus short (wing more than 1½ times as long as tail and nearly 5 times as long as the tarsus); bill large (length of exposed culmen more than 2/3 the length of the tarsus), broad and deep basally (width and height at base of exposed culmen almost equal), and with exposed culmen equal to middle toe without claw; culmen strongly convex throughout its length and with tip decidedly uncinate and with a distinct subterminal notch; maxilla slightly sulcate; maxillary tomium almost straight and without median "tooth"; gonys ascending but not conspicuously so   ...  We take great pleasure in naming this new genus of tanager for Dr. Alexander Wetmore in recognition of his many outstanding contributions to ornithology, ranging from the classification and systematics of both recent and fossil birds to such diverse facets of the subject as bird migration and pterylosis." (Lowery & O'Neill 1964).

sterrhopteron
Gr. στερρος sterrhos stiff, hard; πτερον pteron feather.