Myrmotherula
mur-moh-THER-uh-luh
Genus
little ant-hunter (a diminutive of the related genus Myrmothera)
Literally: little ant-hunter
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| myrm- | an ant | Greek (myrme, -co, =x) | Combining stem myrm- formed by dropping the final -e of myrme- before the connecting vowel -o-; full combining form is myrmeco- |
| -o- | connecting vowel | Standard Greek connecting vowel linking the two roots | |
| -ther- | hunting, pursuit | Greek (thera, -to) | Stem of thera 'hunting'; the -a of thera is absorbed into the diminutive suffix that follows |
| -ula | little, small (diminutive suffix) | Latin (-ul, =a, =e, =um, =us) | Latin feminine diminutive suffix; makes the whole word a grammatically feminine Latin noun meaning 'little [Myrmothera]'; parallels genera such as Muscicapa → Muscicapella |
Myrmotherula is a single-word genus name coined by Sclater (1858) as an explicit diminutive of the closely related genus Myrmothera Vieillot, 1816. Myrmothera itself combines Greek myrmo- (ant) + thera (hunting) = 'ant-hunter', referring to the antbirds' habit of following army-ant swarms to catch flushed insects. Appending the Latin feminine diminutive suffix -ula yields 'little ant-hunter', distinguishing the smaller antwren genus from the larger ground-antbirds of Myrmothera. The name is treated as a feminine Latin noun in the nominative singular, so species epithets must agree in feminine gender (e.g. Myrmotherula axillaris, M. schisticolor).
Pronunciation
- mur-moh-THER-uh-luh Antepenult stress: the penult vowel (-u- in -ula) is short in the Latin diminutive suffix (compare FOR-mu-la, FI-bu-la), so the 'otherwise stress the antepenult' rule applies. The antepenult vowel e in -ther- is short (followed by a single consonant r and then one vowel, not two), giving a short 'eh' sound.
Other readings
One could theoretically parse -ther- as Greek ther (wild beast) rather than thera (hunting), giving 'little ant-beast', but the parent genus Myrmothera and ornithological tradition firmly favour the 'ant-hunter' reading.
The dictionary lists the full combining form as myrmeco- (myrme, -co, =x). In Myrmotherula and its parent genus Myrmothera the authors used the shortened form myrmo-, a common truncation found across ornithological genera (e.g. Myrmoborus, Myrmoderus). thera (hunting, pursuit) is confirmed in the dictionary as 'thera, -to'. This is the etymologically correct reading given the explicit derivation from Myrmothera. The -ula suffix entry (-ul, =a, =e, =um, =us, Latin, 'little') is confirmed in the dictionary.