[3] The white-eyed stipplethroat was described by the Austrian ornithologist August von Pelzeln in 1868 and given the binomial name Formicivora leucophthalma.

Adult males of the nominate subspecies E. l. leucophthalma have a mostly gray-brown face and a black throat with white spots.

Males of subspecies E. l. sordida have white tips on the wing coverts, and females have a stronger cinnamon tinge on their underparts than the nominate.

It favors areas with a dense understory with many dead leaves, both attached and caught in vine tangles and palm thickets.

[8] The white-eyed stipplethroat feeds on arthropods, especially cockroaches (Blattidae), crickets (Gryllidae), katydids (Tettigoniidae), and beetles (Coleoptera).

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

[9] Its calls "include abrupt downslurred notes, sometimes in doublets and triplets, or given in regularly paced series; also a rubbery rattle".