Sphenopsis
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sphenopsis is a genus of warbler-like birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. They are found in highland forest of South America.
| Sphenopsis | |
|---|---|
| |
| Black-eared hemispingus (Sphenopsis melanotis) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Thraupidae |
| Genus: | Sphenopsis Sclater, 1862 |
| Type species | |
| Sphenopsis ignobilis Sclater, PL, 1862 | |
| Species | |
|
See text | |
Taxonomy and species list
The four species now placed in this genus were formerly assigned to the genus Hemispingus. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Hemispingus was polyphyletic and as part of the subsequent rearrangement, the genus Sphenopsis was resurrected for these four species.[1][2][3] The genus had been introduced in 1862 by the English zoologist Philip Sclater with the type species as Sphenopsis ignobilis, a taxon that is now treated as a subspecies of the oleaginous hemispingus.[3][4] The name Sphenopsis combines the Ancient Greek sphēn meaning "wedge" with opsis meaning "appearance".[5]
The four species in the genus are:[3]
| Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Oleaginous hemispingus | Sphenopsis frontalis | Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. |
.jpg) | Black-eared hemispingus | Sphenopsis melanotis | Venezuela, through to western Bolivia |
.jpg) | Piura hemispingus | Sphenopsis piurae | Ecuador and Peru. |
.jpg) | Western hemispingus | Sphenopsis ochracea | Ecuador and Colombia. |
