Contents

Hemixos

Genus of birds

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article possibly contains original research. Please improve itbyverifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (June 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this articlebyadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Hemixos" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Hemixos
Chestnut bulbul (H. castanonotus)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Infraorder:	Passerides
Family:	Pycnonotidae
Genus:	Hemixos Blyth, 1845
Type species
Hemixos flavala[1] Blyth, 1845
Species
see text
Synonyms
Hemixus Hodgson

Hemixos is a songbird genus in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae.^[2]

Established by Edward Blyth in 1845 for the newly discovered ashy bulbul (H. flavala),^[3] this genus contains four extant species.^[2]

Some treatments merge the genus into Hypsipetes, often together with the rest of the traditional "Hypsipetes group" of bulbuls: Iole, Ixos, Microscelis and Tricholestes. But in this case, the closely related genera Alophoixus and Setornis would probably also have to be included, and as soon as the earliest described genus, Ixos, is merged with another its name would apply.^[4]

In fact, Hemixos is not particularly close to Hypsipetes, and a merger is not well justified. mtDNA NADH dehydrogenase subunits 2 and 3 and nDNA β-fibrinogen intron7sequence data puts it closer to (but still well distant from) the streaked bulbul (Ixos malaccensis). But whether that species represents the core group of Ixos – around its type species I. virescens (Sunda bulbul or green-winged bulbul) –, or a distinct lineage worthy of separation in a new genus – in which case Hypsipetes might be merged into the core group of Ixos – has not been studied. In any case, though minor, the Hemixos lineage with its stark white throat and light wing patches seems well distinct.^[5]

Four species are currently recognised:^[2]

• Cream-striped bulbul (Hemixos leucogrammicus; moved from Pycnonotus following molecular phylogenetic analyses)
• Ashy bulbul (Hemixos flavala)
• Cinereous bulbul (Hemixos cinereus)
• Chestnut bulbul (Hemixos castanonotus)

Previously, some authorities also classified the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus Hemixos:

• Sumatran bulbul (asHemixus sumatranus)^[6]

Media related to Hemixos at Wikimedia Commons

• Gregory, Steven M. (2000): Nomenclature of the Hypsipetes Bulbuls (Pycnonotidae). Forktail 16: 164–166. PDF fulltext
• Moyle, Robert G. & Marks, Ben D. (2006): Phylogenetic relationships of the bulbuls (Aves: Pycnonotidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 40(3): 687–695. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.04.015 (HTML abstract)
• Pasquet, Éric; Han, Lian-Xian; Khobkhet, Obhas & Cibois, Alice (2001): Towards a molecular systematics of the genus Criniger, and a preliminary phylogeny of the bulbuls (Aves, Passeriformes, Pycnonotidae). Zoosystema 23(4): 857–863. PDF fulltext