''Lepidothrix'' is a genus of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

birds in the manakin family Pipridae. Birds in the genus are predominantly found in South America, but one species, the velvety manakin, also ranges into Central America. The females of this genus have green

plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...

with yellow bellies, as do some of the males. The remaining males have black plumage with white or blue crowns. Some also have yellow bellies or blue rumps.Snow, D. W. (2004). Family Pipridae (Manakins). Pp. 110-169 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Christie, D. A. eds (2004). ''Handbook of the Birds of the World.'' Vol. 9. Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Lepidothrix'' was introduced by the French naturalist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857) was a French naturalist and ornithology, ornithologist, and a nephew of Napoleon. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal ...

in 1854. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

was subsequently designated as the blue-capped manakin. The name ''Lepidothrix'' combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words λεπις ''lepis'', λεπιδος ''lepidos'' "scale, flake" and θριξ ''thrix'', τριχος ''trikhos'' "hair". A new genus name ''Neolepidothrix'', was proposed in 2009 due to a suggestion that it was a

junior homonym In biology, a homonym is a name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another such name, that belongs to a different taxon. The rule in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is that the first such name to be published is the s ...

of the extinct silverfish '' Lepidotrix'', however it was later shown that the original spelling of the silverfish genus was not same, so therefore the genera were not homonymous. The genus contains nine species:

References

Bird genera Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Pipridae-stub