Bar-throated Apalis (Apalis thoracica) - HBW 11, p. 471

Taxonomy: Motacilla thoracica Shaw, 1811, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Sometimes considered to form a superspecies with A. pulchra and A. ruwenzorii, but these species have ten (not twelve) rectrices, and genetic evidence indicates that they are not closely related to present species. Taxonomy confused by considerable geographical variation in plumage. Until recently was treated as conspecific with A. flavigularis, A. lynesi and A. fuscigularis, and this perhaps more appropriate; molecular-genetic evidence suggests that these are, indeed, nested among other races of present species. Many races in the largely contiguous populations of S Africa intergrade over considerable distances, suggesting that they represent clinal variation and could therefore be collapsed; e.g. claudei and capensis could be subsumed into nominate, darglensis into venusta, lebomboensis into drakensbergensis, spelonkensis into flaviventris, and arnoldi into rhodesiae. On the other hand, there are three major genetic divisions among populations in S Africa: S of R Tugela, in South Africa; R Tugela to R Limpopo; and Zimbabwe. Proposed race iringae (from Tanzania) merged with griseiceps. Full review desirable. Race whitei sometimes listed as bensoni, but that name preoccupied by a synonym of A. chapini strausae. Nineteen subspecies currently recognized.