'' Ixothraupis'' 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 Neotropical birds in the tanager family Thraupidae.

Taxonomy and species list

These species were formerly placed in the genus '' Tangara''. 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 ''Tangara'' was polyphyletic. In the rearrangement 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, the genus ''Ixothraupis'' was resurrected. It had been introduced by the French naturalist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857), was a French naturalist and ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte. Life and career ...

in 1851 with the spotted tanager 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 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 ...

''ixos'' meaning "mistletoe" with "thraupis", an unknown small bird. The genus contains five species: *

Dotted tanager The dotted tanager (''Ixothraupis varia'') is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest A forest is a ...

, ''Ixothraupis varia'' * Rufous-throated tanager, ''Ixothraupis rufigula'' * Spotted tanager, ''Ixothraupis punctata'' * Speckled tanager, ''Ixothraupis guttata'' * Yellow-bellied tanager, ''Ixothraupis xanthogastra''

References

Bird genera Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte {{Thraupidae-stub