Roraiman antwren [SEP] parent taxon
Roraiman antwren
The Roraiman antwren ("Herpsilochmus roraimae") is a insectivorous bird in the antbird family, Thamnophilidae. It was first described by the Austrian ornithologist Carl Hellmayr in 1903 with the type locality of Mount Roraima (Venezuela).
It is found in Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
There are two recognized subspecies:
- "H. r. katheenae" – tepui region of southwest Venezuela and adjacent Brazil
- "H. r. roraimae" –
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of