Wattled Ploughbill

SCI Name:  Eulacestoma nigropectus
Protonym:  Eulacestoma nigropectus AnnualRep.Brit.NewGuinea(1893-1894) App.EE p.102
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Eulacestomatidae / Eulacestoma
Taxonomy Code:  watplo1
Type Locality:  Mt. Maneao, southeastern New Guinea.
Author:  De Vis
Publish Year:  1894
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

EULACESTOMA
(Eulacestomidae; † Wattled Ploughbill E. nigropectus) Gr. ευλακα eulaka  ploughshare; στομα stoma, στοματος stomatos  mouth; "The bill is laterally compressed, very strong, and hooked.  The species favors bamboo thickets in wet montane forests, where it apparently employs its powerful bill to extract arthropods from crevices and stems." (Beehler & Pratt 2016); "The reputation of the island for producing peculiarities in bird structure is upheld by the presence in the collection of a curious wattled Shrike Tit, recalling, perhaps representing, the Frontal Shrike Tit, one of the specialised forms among Australian birds.  ...   Eulacestoma, * n.g.   Bill much shorter than head, much compressed: the depth twice the breadth and equal to the length of the culmen.  Culmen moderately arched; gonys arched more strongly.  Nostrils oval? exposed.  Nasal and rictal bristles short and feeble, a large wattle depending from the rictus.  Wing rather pointed, tip formed by primaries 3-6; first primary more than half the length of second, secondaries long.  Tail of ten feathers, rounded.  Legs robust.  Anterior tarsal scute almost entire.   48. Eulacestoma nigropectus, n.s.   ...   head olive; lores black, broadly tipped with greenish-yellow; ear-coverts and face olive; wattle pinky brown (in life pink).   ...   * Eulake, ploughshare." (DeVis 1894); "Eulacestoma De Vis, 1894, Ann. Rept. Brit. New Guinea, 1893-94, app.[EE.], p. 102. Type, by monotypy, Eulacestoma nigropectus De Vis." (Mayr in Peters, 1967, XII, p. 3).  By some authors the Ploughbill was included with the whistlers Pachycephalidae, or with the shrike-tits Falcunculidae, but it appears to have no close living relatives.

nigropectus
L. niger  black; pectus, pectoris  breast.

SUBSPECIES

Wattled Ploughbill (clara)
SCI Name: Eulacestoma nigropectus clara
clara
L. clarus  distinct, clear.
● Clara Stein (fl. 1944) taxidermist, wife of German zoologist Dr Georg H. W. Stein (subsp. Eulacestoma nigropectus, syn. Gennaeodryas placens).

Wattled Ploughbill (nigropectus)
SCI Name: Eulacestoma nigropectus nigropectus
nigropectus
L. niger  black; pectus, pectoris  breast.