''Arizelocichla'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

greenbul The greenbuls are a group of birds within the bulbul family Pycnonotidae, found only within Africa. They are all largely drab olive-green above, and paler below, with few distinguishing features. The "aberrant greenbuls" of the genera '' Bernier ...

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5,00 ...

s in the bulbul

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

(

Pycnonotidae The bulbuls are members of a family (biology), family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized perching bird, passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and in ...

). The genus was revived in 2010 when twelve species of bulbuls from the genus ''

Andropadus The sombre greenbul (''Andropadus importunus'') is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is a resident breeder in coastal bush, evergreen forest and dry shrub land in eastern and southern Africa. It is the only member of the genus ...

'' were separated and re-classified in the genus ''Arizelocichla''.

Taxonomy

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study of the bulbuls published in 2007 found that the genus ''

'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

. As part of a reorganization to create

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

genera, 12 species from ''Andropadus'' were moved to the resurrected genus ''Arizelocichla'' that had been introduced in 1905 by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser with the

black-headed mountain greenbul The black-headed mountain greenbul (''Arizelocichla nigriceps''), also known as the mountain greenbul or eastern mountain greenbul, is a species of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is native to the eastern Afromontane. Its diet consists ...

as the

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 ...

. The name ''Arizelocichla'' 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 ...

''arizēlos'' meaning "conspicuous" or "admirable" with ''kikhlē'' meaning "thrush".

Species

The genus contains the following 11 species:

References

*Moyle, R. G., and B. D. Marks. 2006. Phylogenetic relationships of the bulbuls (Aves: Pycnonotidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40: 687–695. Greenbuls Taxa named by Harry C. Oberholser Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Pycnonotidae-stub