Genus Proterothrix Gaud, 1968

Type species: Pterodectes wolffi Gaud, 1962 by original designation.

Proterothrix Gaud, 1968 is the most species-rich and morphologically diverse genus of the Proterothrix generic group, which unites morphologically archaic pterodectine genera associated with passerines and coraciiforms (Mironov 2009). To date this genus has included 22 species, of which 20 species are provisionally arranged into three species groups, megacaula, schizothyra, and wolffi (Mironov et al. 2008a, 2010; Mironov & Proctor 2009). The majority of species in the wolffi group (9 of the 15 included species) are associated with passerines of the infraorder Corvida in the Australian and Indo-Malayan regions, and only two species from this group, Proterothrix ranci (Gaud, 1952) and P. terpsiphone Mironov, Literak, Capek and Koubek, 2010, were described from corvid hosts in Africa and Madagascar (Gaud 1952, 1968; Park & Atyeo 1971a; Mironov et al. 2010). Three species of the wolffi group and a sole species of the megacaula group ( P. megacaula Mironov and Diao, 2008) were described from hosts of the infraorder Passerida in China (Mironov et al. 2008a; Mironov & Proctor 2009). Species of the schizothyra group are known exlusively from kingfishers ( Coraciiformes: Alcedinidae) in Africa (Gaud 1979). In the present study we describe for the first time a new Proterothrix species from a passerine host of the family Pelloreneidae (Passerida: Sylvioidea).