Vini, Lesson, 1833

Smith, Brian Tilston, Thom, Gregory & Joseph, Leo, 2024, Revised Evolutionary And Taxonomic Synthesis For Parrots (Order: Psittaciformes) Guided By Phylogenomic Analysis, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2024 (468), pp. 1-87 : 70

Vini and Charmosynoides

The expanded Vini of Joseph et al. (2020) encompasses a radiation of diversely colored, small-bodied birds. We acknowledge informal discussion of the case to replace Vini Lesson, 1833 , with Coriphilus Wagler, 1832 . In contrast to the case of Orthopsittaca manilatus discussed above, we cautiously predict that Vini will warrant retention on the grounds of much more frequent usage, and therefore, stability. For example, in a search of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org; accessed 8 January 2024) for references to “ Vini Lesson ” and “ Coriphilus Wagler ,” we found 1871 vs. 223 full-text and 31 vs. 0 catalog references, respectively, citing these names, i.e., usage of Vini has demonstrably been more frequent than that of Coriphilus . Retention of Vini will promote stability and minimize disruption.

Vini as now construed exhibits high morphological diversity as it includes species formerly assigned to Vini , Charmosyna , and Phigys . It includes taxa with either short rounded tails (e.g., V. solitarius ) through longer attenuated tails (e.g., V. meeki ), species that are predominantly green with minimal red about the face and remarkably colored species with much red or blue, or both, in their plumage.

Charmosynoides was erected for the Solomon Islands endemic C. margarethae . Although C. margarethae certainly resembles the red and green species now placed in Charmosyna sensu stricto, traits such as its broad yellow pectoral band and its biogeographic distinctiveness were highlighted by placement in a monotypic genus. Charmosynoides and Vini are sister taxa that shared a common ancestor 7.7 Mya (2.7–11.2; fig. 14).

The more basal nodes in the radiation gave rise to mostly green birds, whereas more brilliantly and multicolored species (e.g., V. peruviana ; V. ultramarina ) stem from more derived nodes. This pattern of plumage evolution mainly follows a west-east expansion from Melanesia into Polynesia that occurred within the past 6.1 Mya (2.1–8.9; fig. 14). A still unresolved systematic puzzle within this clade is the placement of extinct V. diadema , which is known from a single specimen at the Paris Natural History Museum. Vini diadema was not included in Smith et al. (2020), but Joseph et al. (2020) advocated for its placement in Vini given its phenotypic similarity and geographic proximity to other small-bodied, green Vini .