Zosterops

Zosterops
Black-capped white-eye
Zosterops atricapilla
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Zosteropidae
Genus:Zosterops
Vigors & Horsfield, 1827
Species

see text.

Zosterops (meaning "eye-girdle"[1]) is a genus of birds containing the typical white-eyes. They are traditionally placed in the white-eye family, Zosteropidae, which, however, is now considered part of the Timaliidae.[2][3]

This genus has the highest number of species among the white-eyes by far. They occur in the Afrotropic ecoregion, the Indomalaya zone, and the Australasia ecozone. Typical white-eyes can reach a length between 8 and 15 cm. Their most characteristic feature is the conspicuous white feather ring around the eye, though some species lack it. The species in this group vary in the structural adaptations of the tongue.[4] The Zosterops [griseotinctus] group is an example of a "great speciator" inhabiting a vast area and showing a remarkable morphological differentiation on islands, some of which maybe as close as 2 km apart[5].

Systematics

The genus Zosterops was introduced by the naturalists Nicholas Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827.[6] The type species was subsequently designated as the Malagasy white-eye.[7] The name combines the Ancient Greek words zōstēros "belt" or "girdle" and ōpos "eye".[8]

A review of new DNA sequence data (Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006) suggests the genus might not be monophyletic. Few species have been researched, however, with the highest density of sampled taxa being from Micronesia. There, it appears, a more distinct eastern lineage and a western one closer to East Asian species occur. The relationships of the former to the Rukia white-eyes need investigation.

White-eyes, 1. Zosterops albogularis, 2. Zosterops tenuirostris, 3. Zosterops strenuus

There are 90 species in the genus. This includes three species (denoted by a dagger † in the list below) that have become extinct since the sixteenth century.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Carnaby, Trevor (2008). Beat about the bush: Birds (1st ed.). Johannesburg: Jacana. p. 31. ISBN 9781770092419.
  2. ↑ Jønsson, Knud A.; Fjeldså, Jon (2006). "A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri)". Zool. Scripta. 35 (2): 149–186. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2006.00221.x.
  3. ↑ Christidis L & Boles WE (2008) Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO, Canberra.
  4. ↑ Moreau RE, Mary Perrins & J. Trevor Hughes (1969). "Tongues of the Zosteropidae (White-eyes)" (PDF). Ardea: 29–47.
  5. ↑ Robert G. Moyle, Christopher E. Filardi, Catherine E. Smith, Jared Diamond. Explosive Pleistocene diversification and hemispheric expansion of a “great speciator”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Feb 2009, 106 (6) 1863-1868; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0809861105.
  6. ↑ Vigors, Nicholas Aylward; Horsfield, Thomas (1827). "Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Society; with an attempt at arranging them according to their natural affinities". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London (in English and Latin). 15 (1): 170-334 [234]. The title page is dated 1826.
  7. ↑ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1986). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 12. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 290.
  8. ↑ Jobling, J.A. (2018). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E., eds. "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  9. ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Sylviid babblers, parrotbills, white-eyes". World Bird List Version 8.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 12 May 2018.

Further reading

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