''Helopsaltes'' 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 passerine birds in the grassbird family
Locustellidae
Locustellidae is a newly recognized family of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler " wastebin" family. It contains the grass warblers, grassbirds, and the '' Bradypterus'' " bush warblers". These bi ...
.
A comprehensive
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 grassbird family
Locustellidae
Locustellidae is a newly recognized family of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler " wastebin" family. It contains the grass warblers, grassbirds, and the '' Bradypterus'' " bush warblers". These bi ...
published in 2018 found that the genus ''
Locustella'' consisted of two distinct clades. The genus was split and six species were moved to the newly erected genus ''Helopsaltes'' with
Pallas's grasshopper warbler (''Helopsaltes certhiola'') as 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( ...
. The genus name combines the
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
ἕλος/''helos'' meaning "marshy ground" and ψάλτης/''psaltis'' "a chanter".
[
The genus contains the following species:]
References
Bird genera
{{Locustellidae-stub