Trochalopteron


Trochalopteron is a genus of passerine birds in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae.

Taxonomy

The genus Trochalopteron was introduced in 1843 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. The name combines the Ancient Greek trokhalos meaning "round" or "bowed" with pteron meaning "wing". The type species was designated in 1930 by E. C. Stuart Baker as the scaly laughingthrush.

Species

The genus contains the following 19 species:
ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
Brown-capped laughingthrushTrochalopteron austeniPatkai range, India
Scaly laughingthrushTrochalopteron subunicolorBhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Vietnam.
Streaked laughingthrushTrochalopteron lineatumTurkestan Range to the Safed Koh and east through the Himalayas towards Sikkim.
Striped laughingthrushTrochalopteron virgatumPatkai range, India
Blue-winged laughingthrushTrochalopteron squamatumEastern Himalaya, Yunnan, Myanmar and Laos
Variegated laughingthrushTrochalopteron variegatumBhutan, India, Nepal and Tibet.
Black-faced laughingthrushTrochalopteron affineeastern Nepal eastwards to Arunachal Pradesh in India and further to Myanmar, along with Bhutan and southeastern Tibet.
Elliot's laughingthrushTrochalopteron elliotiicentral China and far northeastern India.
Brown-cheeked laughingthrushTrochalopteron henricisouthwestern China and northeastern India
White-whiskered laughingthrushTrochalopteron morrisonianumTaiwan.
Chestnut-crowned laughingthrushTrochalopteron erythrocephalumBhutan, China, India, and Nepal.
Collared laughingthrushTrochalopteron yersiniVietnam.
Red-tailed laughingthrushTrochalopteron milneiChina, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Red-winged laughingthrushTrochalopteron formosumChina and north-west Vietnam.
Bhutan laughingthrushTrochalopteron imbricatumBhutan and some adjoining areas in India.
Assam laughingthrushTrochalopteron chrysopterumNortheast India and adjacent southwest China and Myanmar.
Silver-eared laughingthrushTrochalopteron melanostigmasouthern Yunnan, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Golden-winged laughingthrushTrochalopteron ngoclinhenseVietnam.
Malayan laughingthrushTrochalopteron peninsulaesouthern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia.

Former species

Two species that were formerly included in this genus have been moved to Montecincla based on phylogenetic studies that showed them to be more distantly related to the Trochalopteron clade than to a clade formed by species in the genera Leiothrix, Actinodura, Minla, Crocias and Heterophasia.