Letitia's thorntail (''Discosura letitiae''), also known as the coppery thorntail, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics ar ...

in the "coquettes", tribe

Lesbiini Lesbiini is one of the two tribes that make up the subfamily Lesbiinae in the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The other tribe is Heliantheini (brilliants). The informal name "coquettes" has been proposed for this group as the largest genus, ...

of subfamily

Lesbiinae Lesbiinae is one of the six subfamilies that make up the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into two tribes: Heliantheini ("brilliants") containing 14 genera and Lesbiini ("coquettes") containing 18 genera. Phylogeny A mol ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved May 27, 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

Letitia's thorntail is only known from two old male specimens described as from

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

. Localities for old skins often are unreliable, and it is possible they came from elsewhere. Consequently, its behavior and habitat are unknown but are likely similar to those of other thorntails. It has been suggested that it represented a

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

or a variant of the

racquet-tailed coquette The racket-tipped thorntail, formerly called racket-tailed coquette, (''Discosura longicaudus'') is a species of hummingbird in subfamily lesbiinae of family Trochilidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and ...

, but a study by G.R. Graves has validated its status as a distinct species. Graves suggested the English name of Letitia's coquette because the specimens' tail feathers more closely resemble those of coquettes than those of thorntails.

Description

Graves described the specimens of Letitia's thorntail, but noted that the perceived colors of hummingbirds depend on the lighting and the observer's angle of view. The crown is brilliant golden-green that blends to dark bronze-green on the back with some coppery-bronze iridescence. The lower back is crossed by a narrow white band below which is a coppery red to coppery purple rump and bronze-green uppertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are s ...

. The chin and upper breast are golden-green like the crown with a diffuse pale pectoral band below the latter. The midline of the lower breast is bronze-green with coppery red spangles. The lower belly and flanks are buffy- to grayish white, the vent is dark gray, and the undertail coverts dark green with rufous tips. One specimen lacks the central tail feathers; the other specimen's are bronze-green with broad black tips. The other tail feathers are brownish black. The tail feathers are progressively longer from the innermost to the outermost but the outermost are not as dramatically longer as in other thorntails.

Status

The IUCN has assessed Letitia's thorntail as Data Deficient. Its "distribution suncertain due to doubts over provenance of specimens" so it is possible that the species still exists undetected elsewhere than Bolivia.Züchner, T., P. F. D. Boesman, and C. J. Sharpe (2020). Coppery Thorntail (''Discosura letitiae''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.coptho2.01 retrieved January 24, 2022

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1267551 Controversial hummingbird taxa Letitia's thorntail Birds of the Gran Chaco Letitia's thorntail Letitia's thorntail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot