Trochilini is one of the three

tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

that make up the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Trochilinae Trochilinae is one of the six subfamily, subfamilies that make up the hummingbird family (biology), family Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into three Tribe (biology), tribes: Lampornithini (mountain gems) containing 18 species, Mellisugini ...

in the hummingbird

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 ...

Trochilidae Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

. The other two tribes in the subfamily are

Lampornithini Lampornithini is one of the three Tribe (biology), tribes that make up the subfamily Trochilinae in the hummingbird family (biology), family Trochilidae. The other two tribes in the subfamily are Mellisugini (bees) and Trochilini (emeralds). The ...

(mountain gems) and

Mellisugini Mellisugini is one of the three Tribe (biology), tribes that make up the subfamily Trochilinae in the hummingbird family (biology), family Trochilidae. The other two tribes in the subfamily are Lampornithini (mountain gems) and Trochilini (emeral ...

(bees). The informal name "emeralds" has been proposed for this group. Several genera contain species with "emerald" in their common name including '' Chlorostilbon'' which contains ten. The tribe contains 114 species divided into 36 genera.

Phylogeny

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 hummingbirds published in 2007 found that the species formed nine major

clades In biology, a clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy ...

. When Edward Dickinson and James Van Remsen, Jr. updated the ''

Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World The ''Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World'' is a book by Richard Howard and Alick Moore which presents a list of the bird species of the world. It was the first single-volume world bird list to include subspecies names, ...

'' for the 4th edition in 2013 they based their classification on these results and placed three of the nine clades in the

. The clades were placed in separate

which they named Trochilini (emeralds),

(mountain gems) and

(bees). The tribe Trochilini with the current circumscription was introduced in 2009.

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 ...

studies by Jimmy McGuire and collaborators published between 2007 and 2014 determined the relationships between the major groups of hummingbirds. In the

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

below the English names are those introduced in 1997. The Latin names are those proposed by Dickinson and Remsen in 2013. The 2014 study by McGuire led to a major revision of the classification of the Trochilini. Many of the traditional genera were found to be

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

and as a result the classification was substantially revised as shown below in the

. Only one new genus was introduced (''Elliotomyia'') but eleven genera were resurrected (''Phaeoptila'', ''Riccordia'', ''Pampa'', ''Thaumasius'', ''Talaphorus'', ''Leucolia'' which was later renamed ''Ramosomyia'', ''Saucerottia'', ''Amazilis'', ''Uranomitra'', ''Chionomesa'' and ''Polyerata''). At the same time six of the former genera were synonymized (''Aphantochroa'', ''Cyanophaia'', ''Elvira'', ''Goethalsia'', ''Juliamyia'' and ''Lepidopyga'').

Phylogeny

Taxonomic list

References

Sources