''Chionomesa'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of South American hummingbirds in the family

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 arou ...

Species

The genus contains two species: *

Glittering-throated emerald The glittering-throated emerald (''Chionomesa fimbriata'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the Guianas, Peru, and Venezuela.HBW and Bir ...

, ''Chionomesa fimbriata'' *

Sapphire-spangled emerald The sapphire-spangled emerald (''Chionomesa lactea'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is regularly found in Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela; as a vagrant in Argentina; and has po ...

, ''Chionomesa lactea'' These two species were formerly placed in the genus ''

Amazilia ''Amazilia'' is a hummingbird genus in the subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in tropical Central and South America. Taxonomy The genus ''Amazilia'' was introduced in 1843 by the French naturalist René Lesson. Lesson had used ''amazilia'' i ...

''. A

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 published in 2014 found that ''Amazilia'' was

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 converg ...

. In the revised classification to create

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

genera, these species were moved to the resurrected genus ''Chionomesa'' that had been introduced in 1921 by the French naturalist

Eugène Simon Eugène Louis Simon (; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider taxonomist in history, describing over 4, ...

. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''khiōn'' meaning "snow" with ''mesos'' meaning "middle". The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

was designated as the

sapphire-spangled emerald The sapphire-spangled emerald (''Chionomesa lactea'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is regularly found in Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela; as a vagrant in Argentina; and has po ...

by the American ornithologist

Charles Wallace Richmond Charles Wallace Richmond (December 31, 1868 – May 19, 1932) was an American ornithologist. He is best remembered for a compilation of the Latin names of birds that is called the Richmond Index. Life and work He was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin an ...

in 1927.

References

Chionomesa Bird genera {{hummingbird-stub