''Hylocharis'' 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 ...

hummingbird 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 aro ...

s, 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 ...

. It contains two species that are both found in South America.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Hylocharis'' was introduced in 1831 by the German naturalist

Friedrich Boie Friedrich Boie (4 June 1789 – 3 March 1870) was a German entomologist, herpetologist, ornithologist, and lawyer.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University ...

. 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 by the English zoologist

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother o ...

in 1840 as the rufous-throated sapphire. 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 ...

''hulē'' meaning "woodland" or "forest" with ''kharis'' meaning "beauty". 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 published in 2014 found that the genus ''Hylocharis'' 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, species were moved to ''

Chrysuronia ''Chrysuronia'' is a genus of hummingbirds in the family Trochilidae. Taxonomy The genus ''Chrysuronia'' was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Bonaparte did not specify a type species but this was designated a ...

'' and ''

Chlorestes ''Chlorestes'' is a genus of hummingbirds. Species The genus contains five species: * White-bellied emerald, ''Chlorestes candida'' (formerly placed in ''Amazilia'') * Blue-throated sapphire, ''Chlorestes eliciae'' (formerly placed in ''Hyloch ...

''. The genus now contains the following two species: * Rufous-throated sapphire (''Hylocharis sapphirina'') *

Gilded sapphire The gilded sapphire (''Hylocharis chrysura''), also known as the gilded hummingbird, is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.Remsen, ...

(''Hylocharis chrysura'')

References

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{hummingbird-stub