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 usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

that make up the subfamily Trochilinae in the hummingbird

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Trochilidae 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 ...

. The other two tribes in the subfamily are Lampornithini (mountain gems) and

Mellisugini Mellisugini is one of the three tribes that make up the subfamily Trochilinae in the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The other two tribes in the subfamily are Lampornithini (mountain gems) and Trochilini (emeralds). The informal name "bees" ...

(bees). The informal name "emeralds" has been proposed for this group. Several genera contain species with "emerald" in their common name including ''

Chlorostilbon ''Chlorostilbon'' is a genus of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae, known as emeralds (as are some hummingbirds in the genera '' Amazilia'' and '' Elvira''). A single species, the blue-chinned sapphire is variously placed in the monotypic g ...

'' 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 A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term ...

. 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 subfamily Trochilinae. The clades were placed in separate

which they named Trochilini (emeralds), Lampornithini (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 ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

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 lead 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 of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

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'', ''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