Two overlooked generic synonyms in the Thraupidae (Aves: Passeriformes)

Abstract

In a revision of the generic classification of the tanagers, Burns et al. (2016) proposed the name Islerothraupis with type species Tanagra cristata Linnaeus, 1766 (long known as Tachyphonus cristatus); however, they overlooked a previous designation of that species as the type of a genus. In 1821, Feliks Pawel Jarocki, in the second volume of Zoologiia czyli Zwiérzętopismo Ogólne podług Naynowszego Systematu ułożone (“Zoology, or general natural history account according to the newest arranged system”), page 133, specified Tanagra cristata as the type of a proposed subgenus Loriotus. The original text in Polish is available at the website www.rcin.org.pl, the Digital Repository of Scientific Institutes, which has made a wide diversity of scholarship in Polish available over the Internet. The original description of Loriotus, in parallel with other names Jarocki introduced in his Zoologiia, is minimal: “Dziób ostro kończysty, cokolwiek zgięty. Żuchwy sczęki spodniey przy nasadzie bardzo mało zgrubiałe.” (Bill ending in a point, somewhat curved. Lower mandible slightly thickened at base.)

Systematics of Thraupis (Aves, Passeriformes) reveals an extensive hybrid zone between T. episcopus (Blue-gray Tanager) and T. sayaca (Sayaca Tanager)

“…The taxonomic history of Thraupis has been dynamic and convoluted with subspecies shifting between species, species between genera, and taxa changing from subspecies to species level and vice versa [9,10]. Recent changes included the movement of two species into resurrected genera-Rauenia bonariensis (Blue-and-yellow Tanager) and Sporothraupis cyanocephala (Blue-capped Tanager)-because molecular phylogenetic evidence showed that they are not closely-related to the remainder species of Thraupis [2,[11][12][13]. Current phylogenetic evidence suggest that Thraupis is a monophyletic group that is closely related to the genera Chalcothraupis, Poecilostreptus, Stilpnia, Tangara, and Ixothraupis.…”