''Hemixos'' is a

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 ...

genus in the

bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropic ...

family, Pycnonotidae.

Taxonomy and systematics

Established by

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Asiatic Society, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He set about updating the museum ...

in 1845 for the newly discovered

ashy bulbul The ashy bulbul (''Hemixos flavala'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found on the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical ...

(''H. flavala''),Gregory (2000) this

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 ...

contains four extant

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. Some treatments merge the genus into ''

Hypsipetes __NOTOC__ ''Hypsipetes'' is a genus of bulbuls, songbirds in the family Pycnonotidae. Most of its species occur in tropical forests around the Indian Ocean. But while the genus is quite diverse in the Madagascar region at the western end of its r ...

'', often together with the rest of the traditional "''Hypsipetes'' group" of

s: ''

Iole In Greek mythology, Iole (; ) was the daughter of King Eurytus of Oechalia. According to the brief epitome in the ''Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Bibliotheca'', Eurytus had a beautiful young daughter named Iole who was eligible for marriage ...

'', ''

Ixos ''Ixos'' is a genus of passerine birds in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. Taxonomy and systematics The genus ''Ixos'' was introduced in 1825 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck to accommodate the Javan bulbul. The genus name is th ...

'', ''

Microscelis ''Microscelis'' is a former genus of bulbuls described by George Robert Gray in 1840. The following species were classified within the genus ''Microscelis'' but are now assigned to ''Iole'', ''Hemixos'' or '' Hypsipetes'': * Olive bulbul (as ...

'' and '' Tricholestes''. But in this case, the closely related genera ''

Alophoixus ''Alophoixus'' is a genus of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae found in south-eastern Asia. Taxonomy and systematics Extant species Up to 2009, all the extant species of the genus ''Alophoixus'' were classified within the genus ''Cr ...

'' and '' Setornis'' would probably also have to be included, and as soon as the earliest described genus, ''Ixos'', is merged with another its name would apply. In fact, ''Hemixos'' is not particularly close to ''Hypsipetes'', and a merger is not well justified.

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...

NADH dehydrogenase NADH dehydrogenase is an enzyme that converts nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) from its reduced form (NADH) to its oxidized form (NAD+). Members of the NADH dehydrogenase family and analogues are commonly systematically named using the f ...

subunits 2 and 3 and

nDNA Nuclear DNA (nDNA), or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid, is the DNA contained within each cell nucleus of a eukaryotic organism. It encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest. It ...

β-fibrinogen Fibrinogen beta chain, also known as FGB, is a gene found in humans and most other vertebrates with a similar system of blood coagulation. The protein encoded by this gene is the beta component of fibrinogen, a blood-borne glycoprotein composed ...

intron An intron is any nucleotide sequence within a gene that is not expressed or operative in the final RNA product. The word ''intron'' is derived from the term ''intragenic region'', i.e., a region inside a gene."The notion of the cistron .e., gen ...

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...

data puts it closer to (but still well distant from) the

streaked bulbul The streaked bulbul (''Ixos malaccensis''), or green-backed bulbul, is a songbird species in the bulbul family (Pycnonotidae). It is found on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland f ...

(''Ixos malaccensis''). But whether that species represents the core group of ''Ixos'' – around its

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 ...

'' I. virescens'' (Sunda bulbul or green-winged bulbul) –, or a distinct lineage worthy of separation in a new genus – in which case ''Hypsipetes'' might be merged into the core group of ''Ixos'' – has not been studied. In any case, though minor, the ''Hemixos'' lineage with its stark white throat and light wing patches seems well distinct.

Extant species

Three species are currently recognised:

Former species

Previously, some authorities also classified the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus ''Hemixos'': *

Cream-striped bulbul The cream-striped bulbul (''Ixos leucogrammicus'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is endemic to western Sumatra (Indonesia). The cream-striped bulbul was originally described in the genus '' Ixos'' and later move ...

(as ''Hemixos leucogrammicus'') *

Sumatran bulbul The Sumatran bulbul (''Ixos sumatranus'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is endemic to Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indon ...

(as ''Hemixus sumatranus'')

Footnotes

References

* Gregory, Steven M. (2000): Nomenclature of the Hypsipetes Bulbuls (Pycnonotidae). ''

Forktail The forktails are small insectivorous birds in the genus ''Enicurus''. They were formerly placed in the thrush family, Turdidae, but are now treated as part of the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. Their common name derives from their l ...

'' 16: 164–166
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* Moyle, Robert G. & Marks, Ben D. (2006): Phylogenetic relationships of the bulbuls (Aves: Pycnonotidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data. '' Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 40(3): 687–695. (HTML abstract) * Pasquet, Éric; Han, Lian-Xian; Khobkhet, Obhas & Cibois, Alice (2001): Towards a molecular systematics of the genus ''Criniger'', and a preliminary phylogeny of the bulbuls (Aves, Passeriformes, Pycnonotidae). ''Zoosystema'' 23(4): 857–863
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q339465 Bulbuls Bird genera Taxa named by Edward Blyth Taxonomy articles created by Polbot