Philodice (bird) explained

Philodice is a genus of hummingbirds in the tribe Mellisugini and family Trochilidae.

Taxonomy

The genus Philodice was introduced in 1866 by the French ornithologists Étienne Mulsant, Jules Verreaux and Édouard Verreaux to accommodate a single species, the purple-throated woodstar, which is therefore the type species.[1] [2] The genus name comes from Greek mythology, Pholodice was the wife of Leucippus and daughter of Inachus.[3]

The genus now contains two species that were formerly assigned to Calliphlox. They were placed in the resurrected genus Philodice based on a molecular phylogenetic study that was published in 2017.[4] [5]

The two species are:[5]

Notes and References

  1. Mulsant . M.E. . Étienne Mulsant . Verreaux . J. . Jules Verreaux . Verreaux . E. . Édouard Verreaux . 1866 . Essai d'une classification méthodique des Trochilidés . Mémoires de la Société impériale des sciences naturelles de Cherbourg . 12 . 149–242 [230] .
  2. Book: Peters . James Lee . James L. Peters . 1945 . Check-List of Birds of the World . 5 . Harvard University Press . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 132 .
  3. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 303 .
  4. Licona-Vera . Yuyini . Ornelas . Juan Francisco . 2017 . The conquering of North America: dated phylogenetic and biogeographic inference of migratory behavior in bee hummingbirds . BMC Evolutionary Biology . 17 . 1 . 126 . 10.1186/s12862-017-0980-5 . 28583078 . 5460336 . free. 2017BMCEE..17..126L .
  5. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . Rasmussen . Pamela . Pamela Rasmussen . August 2022 . Hummingbirds . IOC World Bird List Version 12.2 . International Ornithologists' Union . 16 September 2022 .