''Cistothorus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

birds in the family Troglodytidae.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Cistothorus'' was circumscribed by the German ornithologist

Jean Cabanis Jean Louis Cabanis (8 March 1816 – 20 February 1906) was a German ornithologist. Cabanis was born in Berlin to an old Huguenot family who had moved from France. Little is known of his early life. He studied at the University of Berlin from 183 ...

in 1850. The

type species In 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 species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

is the sedge wren (''Cistothorus stellaris'').

Species

The genus contains five species: * Sedge wren, short-billed marsh wren, ''Cistothorus stellaris'' – northern Mexico, United States and southern Canada * Mérida wren, ''Cistothorus meridae'' – Venezuelan Andes *

Apolinar's wren Apolinar's wren (''Cistothorus apolinari'') is a passerine bird in the family Troglodytidae. It is endemic to Colombia. Taxonomy and systematics Apolinar's wren has two subspecies, the nominate ''Cistothorus apolinari apolinari'' and ''C. ...

, ''Cistothorus apolinari'' – Colombian Andes *

Grass wren The grass wren (''Cistothorus platensis'') is a species of passerine bird in the family Troglodytidae. It is widely distributed in central and southern America. Taxonomy and systematics The grass wren was described in 1790 by the English ...

, ''Cistothorus platensis'' – central and South America * Marsh wren, long-billed marsh wren, ''Cistothorus palustris'' – Mexico, United States and southern Canada The sedge wren and the grass wren were formerly treated as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

. They were split based on the results of a

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 published in 2014.

Notes

References

Troglodytidae Bird genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Troglodytidae-stub