The grass warblers are small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

birds belonging to the

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 ...

''Locustella''. Formerly placed in the

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

Old World warbler Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the ci ...

" assemblage, they are now considered the northernmost representatives of a largely

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

n family, the

Locustellidae Locustellidae is a newly recognized family of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler "wastebin" family. It contains the grass warblers, grassbirds, and the ''Bradypterus'' "bush warblers". These bird ...

. These are rather drab brownish "warblers" usually associated with fairly open grassland, shrubs or marshes. Some are streaked, others plain, all are difficult to view. They are insectivorous. The most characteristic feature of this group is that the song of several species is a mechanical

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

-like reeling which gives rise to the group's scientific name. Species breeding in temperate regions are strongly migratory.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Locustella'' was introduced by the German naturalist

Johann Jakob Kaup Johann Jakob von Kaup (10 April 1803 – 4 July 1873) was a German naturalist. A proponent of natural philosophy, he believed in an innate mathematical order in nature and he attempted biological classifications based on the Quinarian system. Kaup ...

in 1829 with the

common grasshopper warbler The common grasshopper warbler (''Locustella naevia'') is a species of Old World warbler in the grass warbler genus ''Locustella''. It breeds across much of temperate Europe and the western Palearctic. It is migratory, wintering in north and we ...

(''Locustella naevia'') as 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 ...

. The genus name ''Locustella'' is from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and is a diminutive of ''locusta'', "grasshopper". Like the English name, this refers to the insect-like song of some species. There are 23 species placed in the genus: * Lanceolated warbler, ''Locustella lanceolata'' *

Brown bush warbler The brown bush warbler (''Locustella luteoventris'') is a songbird species. Formerly placed in the "Old World warbler" assemblage as ''Bradypterus luteoventrus'', it is now placed in the newly recognized family Locustellidae. It is found in Ban ...

, ''Locustella luteoventris'' * Long-billed bush warbler, ''Locustella major'' *

Common grasshopper warbler The common grasshopper warbler (''Locustella naevia'') is a species of Old World warbler in the grass warbler genus ''Locustella''. It breeds across much of temperate Europe and the western Palearctic. It is migratory, wintering in north and we ...

, ''Locustella naevia'' * Chinese bush warbler, ''Locustella tacsanowskia'' * Bamboo warbler, ''Locustella alfredi'' * River warbler ''Locustella fluviatilis'' *

Savi's warbler Savi's warbler (''Locustella luscinioides'') is a species of Old World warbler in the grass warbler genus ''Locustella''. It breeds in Europe and the western Palearctic. It is migratory, wintering in northern and sub-Saharan Africa. This small ...

, ''Locustella luscinioides'' *

Friendly bush warbler The friendly bush warbler (''Locustella accentor''), also known as the Kinabalu friendly warbler, is a species of Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. It is endemic to the island of Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the thir ...

, ''Locustella accentor'' * Sulawesi bush warbler, ''Locustella castanea'' *

Seram bush warbler The Seram bush warbler (''Locustella musculus'') is a species of Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. It is endemic to the island Seram in Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia ...

, ''Locustella musculus'' *

Buru bush warbler The Buru bush warbler (''Locustella disturbans'') is a species of Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. It is endemic to the island Buru in Indonesia where it is found on the forest floor The forest floor, also called detritus, d ...

, ''Locustella disturbans'' *

Long-tailed bush warbler The long-tailed bush warbler (''Locustella caudata'') is a species of grass warbler (family Locustellidae). It was formerly included in the "Old World warbler Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird f ...

, ''Locustella caudata'' *

Baikal bush warbler The Baikal bush warbler (''Locustella davidi''), also known as Baikal grasshopper-warbler or David's bush warbler, is a migratory species of Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. It breeds from the southern part of the Russian Far Eas ...

, ''Locustella davidi'' *

Spotted bush warbler The spotted bush warbler (''Locustella thoracica'') is a species of Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. It is found in the northern Himalayas, Yunnan and central China, in the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar a ...

, ''Locustella thoracica'' *

West Himalayan bush warbler The West Himalayan bush warbler (''Locustella kashmirensis'') is a species of Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. It is found in the northwestern Himalayas. It was previously considered conspecific with the spotted bush warbler. It ...

, ''Locustella kashmirensis '' *

Taiwan bush warbler The Taiwan bush warbler (''Locustella alishanensis'') is a species of Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. It is found only in Taiwan. Its natural habitat is undergrowth and grassland in elevation. It was first recorded in 1917 and nam ...

, ''Locustella alishanensis'' *

Russet bush warbler The russet bush warbler (''Locustella mandelli'') is a songbird species. Formerly placed in the "Old World warbler" assemblage, it is now placed in the newly recognized family Locustellidae. ''B. mandelli'' was until recently considered a subsp ...

, ''Locustella mandelli'' * Dalat bush warbler, ''Locustella idonea'' *

Benguet bush warbler The Benguet bush warbler (''Locustella seebohmi''), also known as the Benguet grasshopper-warbler, is a songbird species. Formerly placed in the "Old World warbler" assemblage, it is now placed in the newly recognized family Locustellidae. ''L. ...

, ''Locustella seebohmi'' * Javan bush warbler, ''Locustella montis'' * Sichuan bush warbler, ''Locustella chengi'' * Taliabu bush warbler, ''Locustella portenta'' This genus formerly included additional species. 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 of the grassbird family

published in 2018 found that the genus ''Locustella'' consisted of two distinct clades. The genus was split and six species were moved to the newly erected genus ''

Helopsaltes ''Helopsaltes'' is a genus of passerine birds in the grassbird family Locustellidae. A comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the grassbird family Locustellidae published in 2018 found that the genus '' Locustella'' consisted of two disti ...

''. A

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

acrocoracoid from the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

(about 11 mya) of

Rudabánya Rudabánya is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Hungary. The town territory was the location of the discovery of a hominid from 12 million years ago, '' Dryopithecus brancoi'' (1969). International relations Rudabánya is twinned with: ...

(NE

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

) is quite similar to this bone in the present genus.Bernor, R.L.; Kordos, L. & Rook, L. (eds)
Recent Advances on Multidisciplinary Research at Rudabánya, Late Miocene (MN9), Hungary: A compendium
". ''Paleontographica Italiana'' 89: 3-36. Given its rather early age (most

Passerida Passerida is, under the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, one of two parvorders contained within the suborder Passeri (standard taxonomic practice would place them at the rank of infraorder). While more recent research suggests that its sister parvorde ...

genera are not known until the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Sylvioidea Sylvioidea is a superfamily of passerine birds, one of at least three major clades within the Passerida along with the Muscicapoidea and Passeroidea. It contains about 1300 species including the Old World warblers, Old World babblers, swallows ...

at the least. As the grasshopper warblers are the only known locustellid warblers from Europe, it is still fairly likely that the bone piece belongs to a basal ''Locustella''.

References

Locustella {{Locustellidae-stub