Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra) [XC290936]
by HARI MAVELIKARA from Base of Old road to Fraser's Hill. The Gap, Pahang, Malaysia (song)
Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra) [XC168288]
by vir joshi from Neelikkal, Silent Valley National Park (near Padavayal), Palakkad, Kerala, India (call)
Subspecies
Additional proposed subspecies, all considered insufficiently distinct, are vantynei (from Jagalbed, Bombay, in western India), subsumed in nominate, and antelia (Trang, in southern Thailand), heliocrita (Selitar, near Singapore), melanchima (upper R Siak, in eastern Sumatra), hypochra (North Pagai I), and exochra (South Pagai I), all synonymized with cinireicollis. For subspecies cinireicollis, original spelling often altered to "cinereicollis", but this is an unjustified emendation.
The following 13 subspecies are recognised:
longirostra (Latham, 1790) - South-western, central-eastern and north-eastern India (Western Ghats from Goa region south to western Tamil Nadu and Kerala; eastern Orissa and northern eastern Ghats; Darjeeling; Arunachal Pradesh south to Meghalaya and Manipur), eastern Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar east to southern China (western Yunnan) and western Thailand (south to Isthmus of Kra).
sordida La Touche, 1921 - Extreme southern China (southern and south-eastern Yunnan, extreme north-western Guangxi), north-eastern Thailand and northern Indochina.
pallida Delacour, 1932 - South-eastern Thailand and central and southern Indochina.
cinireicollis (Vieillot, 1819) - Malay Peninsula (south of Isthmus of Kra) south to and Sumatra and satellite islands (except Banyak Is and Nias I).
zarhina Oberholser, 1912 - Banyak Is, off western Sumatra.
niasensis van Oort, 1910 - Nias I, off western Sumatra.
rothschildi van Oort, 1910 - Northern Natuna Is.
atita Oberholser, 1932 - Southern Natuna Is.
buettikoferi van Oort, 1910 - Borneo.
prillwitzi Hartert, 1901 - Java (including Madura I) and Bali.
dilutior Sharpe, 1876 - Palawan, in western Philippine Is. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Palawan Spiderhunter (Arachnothera dilutior).
flammifera Tweeddale, 1878 - Eastern and southern Philippines (Samar, Biliran, Leyte, Bohol, Dinagat, Mindanao). Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Orange-tufted Spiderhunter (Arachnothera flammifera).
randi Salomonsen, 1953 - Basilan (off western Mindanao). Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Orange-tufted Spiderhunter (Arachnothera flammifera).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet