Laticilla

{{Short description|Genus of birds}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image =SaurabhSawant Rufous-ventedPrinia Harike MG 7576.jpg

| image_caption = Rufous-vented grass babbler, Laticilla burnesii

| taxon = Laticilla

| authority = Blyth, 1845

| type_species = Eurycercus burnesii{{cite web |url= https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=255 |title= Pellorneidae |author= |date= |website= aviansystematics.org |publisher= The Trust for Avian Systematics |access-date= 2023-07-15}}

| type_species_authority = Blyth, 1844

}}

Laticilla is a genus of small passerine birds in the family Pellorneidae. Members of the genus are found in Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh.

A molecular phylogenetic study of the Cisticolidae published in 2013 found that the rufous-vented grass babbler did not lie within the clade containing the other prinias but instead belonged to the Pellorneidae.{{ cite journal | last1=Olsson | first1=U. | last2=Irestedt | first2=M. | last3=Sangster | first3=G. | last4=Ericson | first4=P.G.P. | last5=Alström | first5=P. | year=2013 | title=Systematic revision of the avian family Cisticolidae based on a multi-locus phylogeny of all genera | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume=66 | issue=3 | doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2012.11.004 | pmid=23159891 | pages=790–9 | bibcode=2013MolPE..66..790O }} To create monophyletic genera, the rufous-vented prinia and the closely related swamp grass babbler were placed in the reintroduced genus Laticilla in the Pellorneidae. The genus Laticilla had been erected by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1845 with the rufous-vented prinia as the type species. The genus replaced Eurycercus that Blyth had introduced in 1844 only to subsequently discover that the name was preoccupied.{{ cite journal | last=Blyth | year=1845 | title=Notices and descriptions of new or little known species of birds (continued) | journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal | volume=14 Part 2 | pages=546–602 [596] | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40127371 }}{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Cottrell | editor2-first=G. William | year=1986 | title=Check-list of Birds of the World | volume=11 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=128 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14483829 }} The name Laticilla comes from the Latin latus for "wide" or "broad" and cilla for "tail".{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn= 978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=220 | url=https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n220/mode/1up }}