Rufiphonia Vazquez-Lopez & Hernandez-Banos, 2024

Vazquez-Lopez, Melisa, Ramirez-Barrera, Sandra M., Terrones-Ramirez, Alondra K., Robles-Bello, Sahid M., Nieto-Montes de Oca, Adrian, Ruegg, Kristen & Hernandez-Banos, Blanca E., 2024, Biogeographic factors contributing to the diversification of Euphoniinae (Aves, Passeriformes, Fringillidae): a phylogenetic and ancestral areas analysis, ZooKeys 1188, pp. 169-195 : 169

Rufiphonia Vazquez-Lopez & Hernandez-Banos gen. nov.

Type species.

Rufiphonia rufiventris (Vieillot, 1819). Type locality: Perú.

Included species.

Rufiphonia fulvicrissa (Sclater, 1857), type locality: Santa Martha, New Granada; R. imitans (Hellmayr, 1936), type locality: El Pozo, Rio Terraba, Costa Rica; R. gouldi (Sclater, 1857), type locality: Guatemala; R. mesochrysa (Salvadori, 1873) type locality: No locality given, Bogotá, Colombia; R. anneae (Cassin, 1865), type locality: Santa Rosa, Costa Rica, R. xanthogaster (Sundevall, 1834), type locality: Río de Janeiro, Brazil; R. pectoralis (Latham, 1801), and R. cayennensis (Gmelin, 1789), type locality: Guyana.

Morphological description.

Most males of this genus display the classic Euphonia pattern of dark blue throat and back with yellow belly, with four exceptions. R. gouldi and R. mesochrysa have olive upper parts with grey-blue glosses. The males of R. cayennensis and R. pectoralis have predominantly dark and glossy metallic-blue plumage. Also, the males could have a forehead in yellow or rufous, a rufous belly, and undertail coverts in rufous. The females are primarily olive with contrasting rufous patches on the forehead, belly, or undertail coverts.

Diagnosis.

The new genus can be distinguished from all other Euphonia species by the rufous color patches, which can be on the belly, the crest, and/or the undertail-coverts, in both male and female adults.