It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

[2] The dusky-throated antshrike was described by the English ornithologists Philip Sclater and Osbert Salvin in 1868 and given the binomial name Dysithamnus ardesiacus.

[6] The dusky-throated and saturnine antshrike (T. saturminus) were treated as conspecific by many twentieth century authors and now are considered to form a superspecies.

[6] The dusky-throated antshrike has two subspecies, the nominate T. a. ardesiacus (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1868) and T. a. obidensis (Snethlage, E, 1914).

Subspecies T. a. obidensis has a shorter tail than the nominate, a black throat, and sometimes some white on the wings.

Subspecies T. a. obidensis is found from eastern Colombia east through eastern and southern Venezuela and the Guianas, and in northern Brazil from the Rio Negro watershed to the Atlantic and south of the Amazon between the rios Tefé and Purus.

It mostly forages singly, in pairs, and family groups and usually as part of a mixed-species feeding flock.

Its nest is a cup made of fungal filaments and other plant fibers with dried leaves on the outside.