Systematics

Two subspecies currently recognized:

serrana (Taczanowski 1874); type locality "Junín and Acancocha, Perú"

Occupies the majority of the distribution of the species, from Cajamarca and La Libertad south of Junín. See Detailed Description.

huancavelicae (Morrison 1938); type locality Lachocc, Huancavelica, Peru; type in the Natural History Museum, Tring, United Kingdom (Warren and Harrison 1971).

Occurs at the southern end of the range of the species, in Huancavelica. "Very similar to typical [nominate] serrana ... but much darker above. Underparts and flanks darker and greyer, and scarcely tinged at all with warm brown" (Morrison 1938).

The Striated Earthcreeper was described as a member of the genus Upucerthia, and the inclusion of serrana within this genus was unquestioned until recently (e.g. Taczanowski 1874, Hellmayr 1925, Peters 1951, Fjeldså and Krabbe 1990). Phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence data, from both nuclear and mitochondrial genes, however, reveals that the genus Upucerthia, under the traditional classifications, is polyphyletic (Chesser et al. 2007, Fjeldså et al. 2007). The Striated Earthcreeper is basal to a clade that consists of the genera Cinclodes and the four species of "true" Upucerthia (Chesser et al. 2009). Consequently, Chesser and Claramunt (in Chesser et al. 2009) proposed a new genus, Geocerthia, for serrana.