The spotted tanager (''Ixothraupis punctata'') is a species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana,

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

, Peru,

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, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the spotted tanager in his ''Ornithologie'' based on a specimen collected in the West Indies. He used the French name ''Le tangara verd piqueté des Indes '' and the Latin name ''Tangara viridis indica punctulata''. The two stars (**) at the start of the paragraph indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the

binomial system The binomial system ( es, Sistema binominal) is a voting system that was used in the legislative elections of Chile between 1989 and 2013. From an electoral system point of view, the binomial system is in effect the D'Hondt method with an ope ...

and are not recognised by the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'' for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the spotted tanager. Linnaeus included a terse description, coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Tanagra punctata'' and cited Brisson's work. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''punctata'' is Latin for "spotted". The spotted tanager is now placed in the genus ''

Ixothraupis '' Ixothraupis'' is a genus of Neotropical birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. Taxonomy and species list These species were formerly placed in the genus '' Tangara''. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that ''Tangara'' ...

''. Five

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised: * ''I. p. punctata'' ( Linnaeus, 1766) – south Venezuela, the Guianas and north Brazil * ''I. p. zamorae'' (

Chapman Chapman may refer to: Businesses * Chapman Entertainment, a former British television production company * Chapman Guitars, a guitar company established in 2009 by Rob Chapman * Chapman's, a Canadian ice cream and ice water products manufacturer ...

, 1925) – central Ecuador and north Peru * ''I. p. perenensis'' (Chapman, 1925) – central Peru * ''I. p. annectens'' ( Zimmer, JT, 1943) – southeast Peru * ''I. p. punctulata'' ( Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1876) – west-central Bolivia

Gallery

Image:Tangara punctata-20090405B.jpg, Spotted tanager Image:Spotted Tanager RWD4.jpg , Spotted tanager at San Diego Zoo

References

spotted tanager Birds of the Guiana Shield Birds of the Amazon rainforest Birds of the Yungas spotted tanager spotted tanager Birds of Brazil Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Thraupidae-stub