Melopyrrha | |
---|---|
Cuban bullfinch (Melopyrrha nigra) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Thraupidae |
Genus: | Melopyrrha Bonaparte, 1853 |
Type species | |
Loxia nigra Linnaeus, 1858 |
Melopyrrha is a genus of passerine birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is made up of four extant species endemic to the Greater Antilles, along with 1 possibly extinct species from the island of Saint Kitts in the Lesser Antilles.
The genus Melopyrrha was introduced in 1853 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. [1] The type species was later specified by George Robert Gray as the Cuban bullfinch. [2] The name combines the Ancient Greek melas meaning "black" with the genus Pyrrhula introduced by Mathurin Jacques Brisson for the bullfinches. [3] This genus was formerly monospecific containing only the Cuban bullfinch. [4] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the genus Loxigilla was polyphyletic and that the Greater Antillean bullfinch, Puerto Rican bullfinch and Cuban bullfinch formed a clade. [5] The three species were therefore placed together in Melopyrrha. [6] In 2021, the possibly extinct St. Kitts bullfinch (M. grandis) was split from M. portoricensis as a distinct species. [7]
Although these species were traditionally placed with the buntings and New World sparrows in the family Emberizidae, [4] molecular genetic studies have shown that they are members of the tanager family Thraupidae and belong to the subfamily Coerebinae that also contains Darwin's finches. [5]
The five species in the genus are: [6]
Image | Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
---|---|---|---|
Puerto Rican bullfinch | Melopyrrha portoricensis | Puerto Rico. | |
St. Kitts bullfinch | Melopyrrha grandis | Saint Kitts. | |
Greater Antillean bullfinch | Melopyrrha violacea | Bahamas, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as well as surrounding islands), Jamaica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. | |
Grand Cayman bullfinch | Melopyrrha taylori | Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. | |
Cuban bullfinch | Melopyrrha nigra | Cuba. | |
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