Trochilinae is one of the six subfamilies that make up the hummingbird

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into three

tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

: Lampornithini (mountain gems) containing 18 species, Mellisugini (bees) containing 37 species and Trochilini (emeralds) containing 115 species.

Phylogeny

The hummingbirds were formerly divided into two subfamilies, the hermits ( Phaethornithinae) and the nonhermits (Trochilinae). The results from a 2007 DNA hybridization study suggested that the hermits were basal to the rest of the family. 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 hummingbirds published in 2007 found that the family consisted of nine

clades A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English te ...

. When

Edward Dickinson Edward Dickinson (January 1, 1803 – June 16, 1874) was an American politician from Massachusetts. He is also known as the father of the poet Emily Dickinson; their family home in Amherst, the Dickinson Homestead, is a museum dedicated to her. ...

and James Van Remsen Jr. updated the ''

Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World The ''Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World'' is a book by Richard Howard and Alick Moore which presents a list of the bird species of the world. It was the first single-volume world bird list to include subspecies names, ...

'' for the 4th edition in 2013, they divided the hummingbird family into six subfamilies based on the molecular results and redefined the subfamily Trochilinae to contain three clades, each of which they placed in a separate

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

: Lampornithini (mountain gems), Mellisugini (bees) and Trochilini (emeralds). A comprehensive phylogenetic study that sampled 284 hummingbird species was published in 2014. It confirmed the nine clades found in the earlier study but found that the hermits were sister to the topazes clade (subfamily Florisuginae) containing the genera '' Topaza'' and '' Florisuga''. Many of the traditional genera in the emerald clade (Trochilini) were shown to be

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 conver ...

. As a result, many of the genera in this part of the

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

have been revised. The above

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

of the hummingbird family is based on a

study by Jimmy McGuire and collaborators published in 2014. The Latin names are those proposed by Dickinson and Remsen in 2013.

References

Sources

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1073958 * Bird subfamilies