Black-spotted Barbet (Capito niger) - HBW 7, p. 215

Taxonomy: Bucco niger P. L. S. Müller, 1776, no locality = Cayenne.
No very close allies; possibly fairly close to C. quinticolor. Was long considered to include C. brunneipectus as race, but that species differs markedly in morphology from all races of present species, and has distinctive song; the two are perhaps not related directly. Nominate race may be specifically distinct from all others, latter then constituting a separate polytypic species, C. auratus, but nominate niger may meet other races in N Brazil (Roraima); given similarity of all forms herein included in present species, combined with individual distinctiveness of all American barbet species currently recognized, it seems best to avoid such a split until studies have been carried out in areas of possible overlap in Roraima. Many races intergrade. Other races described from NW Brazil are transilens (upper R Negro), considered synonymous with nitidior, and novaolindae (Nova Olinda) and arimae (R Purús), both treated as synonymous with amazonicus, possibly fitting into a cline from orange-throated insperatus in S towards red-throated amazonicus in N; birds described as race intermedius (WC Venezuela) inseparable from aurantiicinctus; forms macintyrei from SW Colombia and Ecuador and conjunctus from Peru fall within range of variation of punctatus. Form “bolivianus” known only from type specimen of unknown locality, possibly from R Beni (N Boli­via); now thought most likely to be an aberrant specimen of insperatus. Nine subspecies currently recognized.