Florisuginae Explained

Florisuginae is one of the six subfamilies in the hummingbird family Trochilidae.

The subfamily contains two genera, Topaza and Florisuga, which each contain two species.

Phylogeny

A molecular phylogenetic study of the hummingbirds published in 2007 found that the family was composed of nine major clades.^[1] When Edward Dickinson and James Van Remsen, Jr. updated the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World for the 4th edition in 2013 they divided the hummingbirds into six subfamilies and proposed using the name Florisuginae for the clade consisting of the genera Topaza and Florisuga. The subfamily Florisuginae had originally been introduced (as Florisugeae) by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1853.^[2]

Molecular phylogenetic studies by Jimmy McGuire and collaborators published between 2007 and 2014 determined the relationships between the major groups of hummingbirds.^{[3] [1] [4]} In the cladogram below the English names are those introduced in 1997.^[5] The Latin names are those proposed by Dickinson and Remsen in 2013.

Taxonomic list

The subfamily contains four species.^[6]

Image	Genus	Living species
	Topaza	Crimson topaz, Topaza pella Fiery topaz, Topaza pyra
	Florisuga	White-necked jacobin, Florisuga mellivora Black jacobin, Florisuga fuscus

Sources

• Book: Dickinson . E.C. . Edward C. Dickinson . Remsen . J.V. Jr. . James Van Remsen, Jr. . 2013 . The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World . 1: Non-passerines . 4th . Eastbourne, UK . Aves Press . 978-0-9568611-0-8 .

Notes and References

1. McGuire . J.A. . Witt . C.C. . Altshuler . D.L. . Remsen . J.V. . 2007 . Phylogenetic systematics and biogeography of hummingbirds: Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses of partitioned data and selection of an appropriate partitioning strategy . Systematic Biology . 56 . 5 . 837–856 . 10.1080/10635150701656360 . 17934998 .
2. Bonaparte . Charles Lucien . Charles Lucien Bonaparte . 1853 . Classification ornithologique par séries . French . Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences . 37 . 641–647 [645] .
3. McGuire . J. . Witt . C. . Remsen . J.V. . Corl . A. . Rabosky . D. . Altshuler . D. . Dudley . R. . 2014 . Molecular phylogenetics and the diversification of hummingbirds . Current Biology . 24 . 8 . 910–916 . 10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.016 . 24704078 . free . 2014CBio...24..910M .
4. McGuire . J.A. . Witt . C.C. . Remsen . J.V. . Dudley . R. . Altshuler . D.L. . 2009 . A higher-level taxonomy for hummingbirds . Journal of Ornithology . 150 . 1 . 155–165 . 10.1007/s10336-008-0330-x .
5. Bleiweiss . R. . Kirsch . J.A. . Matheus . J.C. . 1997 . DNA hybridization evidence for the principal lineages of hummingbirds (Aves:Trochilidae). . Molecular Biology and Evolution . 14 . 3 . 325–343 . 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a025767 . 9066799 . free.
6. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . Rasmussen . Pamela . Pamela Rasmussen . July 2020 . Hummingbirds . IOC World Bird List Version 10.2 . International Ornithologists' Union . 8 January 2020 .