Mayrimunia
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mayrimunia is a genus of small seed-eating birds in the family Estrildidae that are endemic to New Guinea.
| Mayrimunia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Estrildidae |
| Genus: | Mayrimunia Wolters, 1949 |
| Type species | |
| Lonchura tristissima (streak-headed mannikin) Wallace, 1865 | |
The genus was introduced in 1949 by the German ornithologist Hans Edmund Wolters with the streak-headed mannikin as the type species.[1][2] The name was chosen to honour the evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr and combines his name with the genus Munia.[3]
The two species now placed in genus were formerly placed in the genus Lonchura. They were moved to this resurrected genus based on a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2020.[4]
Species
The genus contains two species:[5]
- Streak-headed mannikin (Mayrimunia tristissima) – New Guinea
- White-spotted mannikin (Mayrimunia leucosticta) – New Guinea
