''Selasphorus'' 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 hummingbirds from Middle and North America.

Taxonomy

The

''Selasphorus'' was introduced in 1832 by the English naturalist William John Swainson to accommodate the rufous hummingbird which is now 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 ...

''selas'' meaning "light" or "flame" with ''-phoros'' meaning "-carrying". The genus contains the following nine

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

: The wine-throated hummingbird and the bumblebee hummingbird were formerly placed in the genus ''Atthis''. Molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2014 and 2017 found that ''Atthis'' was embedded within ''Selasphorus''. The genera were therefore merged and these hummingbirds were moved to ''Selasphorus''.

References

External links

* Bird genera Taxa named by William John Swainson {{hummingbird-stub