''Iole'' 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 ...

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 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 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. They are native to

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

eastern Asia, from India to China and south through Southeast Asia to northern Indonesia.

Taxonomy and systematics

While some older sources merge this 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 ...

'', this is neither advisable nor technically correct. The two genera stand well apart, and to

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

ally justify their merging, the entire "''Hypsipetes'' group" of bulbuls would need to be united in a single genus. That would include ''

Hemixos ''Hemixos'' is a songbird genus in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. Taxonomy and systematics Established by Edward Blyth in 1845 for the newly discovered ashy bulbul (''H. flavala''),Gregory (2000) this genus contains four extant species. So ...

'', ''

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'', and probably also ''

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 the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

'' Setornis''. The

hook-billed bulbul The hook-billed bulbul (''Setornis criniger'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in eastern Sumatra and Borneo, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or ...

may in fact be the closest living relative to the species in ''Iole'', but altogether the present genus may well be a quite basal lineage of the traditional "''Hypsipetes'' group" of bulbuls, with no particularly close relatives among any of these other genera.Gregory (2000), Pasquet ''et al.'' (2001), Moyle & Marks (2006) According to

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 ''Alophoixus'' is only slightly more distant from ''Hypsipetes'' than ''Iole'' is, whereas mtDNA

12S rRNA Mitochondrially encoded 12S ribosomal RNA (often abbreviated as 12S or 12S rRNA) is the SSU rRNA of the mitochondrial ribosome. In humans, 12S is encoded by the ''MT-RNR1'' gene and is 959 nucleotides long. MT-RNR1 is one of the 37 genes conta ...

and

16S rRNA 16S ribosomal RNA (or 16Svedberg, S rRNA) is the RNA component of the 30S subunit of a prokaryotic ribosome (SSU rRNA). It binds to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and provides most of the SSU structure. The genes coding for it are referred to as ...

sequence data places it actually closer to ''Hypsipetes'' than to ''Iole''. As the

genus name Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial spec ...

''Ixos'' pre-dates ''Hypsipetes'', it would thus apply to such a thoroughly merged "

wastebin taxon Wastebasket taxon (also called a wastebin taxon, dustbin taxon or catch-all taxon) is a term used by some taxonomists to refer to a taxon that has the purpose of classifying organisms that do not fit anywhere else. They are typically defined by e ...

Extant species

The following seven

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), ...

are currently recognized:

Former species

Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus ''Iole'': *

Yellow-browed bulbul The yellow-browed bulbul (''Acritillas indica''), or golden-browed bulbul, is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in the forests of southern India and Sri Lanka. The yellow-browed bulbul is mainly yellow on the ...

(as ''Iole indica'') * Yellow-browed bulbul (icterica) (as ''Iole icterica'') *

Cinereous bulbul The cinereous bulbul (''Hemixos cinereus'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Taxonomy and systematics The cinereous bulbul was originally classified in the genus ''Iole''. ...

(as ''Iole cinerea'') *

Mindoro bulbul The Mindoro bulbul (''Hypsipetes mindorensis'') is a songbird species in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is endemic to Mindoro in the Philippines. Its natural habitats are tropical moist lowland forests and tropical moist montane forests. It ...

(as ''Iole Mindorensis'') *

Visayan bulbul The Visayan bulbul (''Hypsipetes guimarasensis'') or Steere's bulbul, is a songbird species in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is endemic to the western Visayas in the Philippines. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowla ...

(as ''Iole Guimarasensis'') * Zamboanga bulbul (as ''Iole rufigularis'') *

Streak-breasted bulbul The streak-breasted bulbul (''Hypsipetes siquijorensis'') is a songbird species in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is endemic to the Philippines found in the Visayas on the islands of Tablas Island, Siquijor, Cebu and Romblon. This species i ...

(as ''Iole siquijorensis'') * Romblon bulbul (as ''Iole cinereiceps'') *

Cebu bulbul The Cebu bulbul (''Hypsipetes siquijorensis monticola'') also known as the Cebu slaty-crowned bulbul or the Cebu streak-breasted bulbul is a subspecies of the streak-breasted bulbul. It is endemic to the Philippines found only on the island of Ce ...

(as ''Iole monticola'')

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=Q610468 Bird genera Bulbuls Taxa named by Edward Blyth Birds of Southeast Asia