Asemospiza Explained

Asemospiza is a genus of South American birds in the tanager family Thraupidae.

Taxonomy and species list

These species were formerly placed in the genus Tiaris. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Tiaris was polyphyletic.^[1] In the resulting reorganization to create monophyletic genera, these two species were assigned to a new genus Asemospiza with the sooty grassquit as the type species.^[2] The name combines the Ancient Greek ἄσημος/asēmos meaning "without marks" with σπίζα/spiza meaning "finch".^{[2] [3]} These two species are in the subfamily Coerebinae and form a sister clade to the Darwin's finches.^[1]

The species in the genus are:^[4]

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Asemospiza fuliginosa		Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela
	Asemospiza obscura		Venezuela to Argentina

Notes and References

1. Burns . K.J. . Shultz . A.J. . Title . P.O. . Mason . N.A. . Barker . F.K. . Klicka . J. . Lanyon . S.M. . Lovette . I.J. . 2014 . Phylogenetics and diversification of tanagers (Passeriformes: Thraupidae), the largest radiation of Neotropical songbirds . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 75. 41–77 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2014.02.006 . 24583021 . 2014MolPE..75...41B .
2. Burns . K.J. . Unitt . P. . Mason . N.A. . 2016 . A genus-level classification of the family Thraupidae (Class Aves: Order Passeriformes) . Zootaxa . 4088 . 3 . 329–354 . 10.11646/zootaxa.4088.3.2 . 27394344 .
3. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 56, 362 .
4. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . Rasmussen . Pamela . Pamela Rasmussen . July 2020 . Tanagers and allies . IOC World Bird List Version 10.2 . International Ornithologists' Union . 12 November 2020 .