Peucaea
Peucaea is a genus of American sparrows. The species in this genus used to be included in the genus Aimophila.
Taxonomy and species
A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2009 found that the genus Aimophila was polyphyletic. In the resulting reorganization to create monophyletic genera, eight species were moved from Aimophila to the resurrected genus Peucaea. Peucaea had been introduced by the Franco-American ornithologist John James Audubon in 1839. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek peukē meaning "pine-tree". The type species was designated by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1841 as Fringilla bachmani, a taxon now considered to be a subspecies of Bachman's sparrow with the trinomial name Peucaea aestivalis bachmani. Peucaea is the sister genus to Ammodramus within the family Passerellidae.The genus contains the following 8 species:
- Rufous-winged sparrow, Peucaea carpalis
- Cinnamon-tailed sparrow, Peucaea sumichrasti
- Stripe-headed sparrow, Peucaea ruficauda
- Black-chested sparrow, Peucaea humeralis
- Bridled sparrow, Peucaea mystacalis
- Botteri's sparrow, Peucaea botterii
- Cassin's sparrow, Peucaea cassinii
- Bachman's sparrow, ''Peucaea aestivalis''