''Discosura'' is a genus of South and Central American

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

s in the family

Trochilidae Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

. The thorntails are sometimes placed in the genus ''Popelairia'' ( Reichenbach, 1854), leaving ''Discosura'' for the racket-tipped thorntail. On the contrary, some have argued for merging this genus into ''

Lophornis ''Lophornis'' is a genus of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. These are all tiny birds, ranking among the smallest hummingbirds. No species exceeds and most are under in total length, weighing 3 grams or less. The male coquettes are note ...

'', which they overall resemble, except for the highly modified tail-feathers of the males.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Discosura'' was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857) was a French naturalist and ornithology, ornithologist, and a nephew of Napoleon. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal ...

. Bonaparte did not specify a

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

but this was designated as the racket-tipped thorntail by

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoology, zoologist and author, and head of the Ornithology, ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum, London f ...

in 1855. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''diskos'' meaning "plate" with ''oura'' meaning "tail". The genus contains five species.

References

Hummingbirds Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{hummingbird-stub