Leptosittaca

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 : 43

Leptosittaca , Ognorhynchus , Thectocercus , Diopsittaca , and Guaruba

These five genera are all midsized parrots with long, attenuate tails. All are predominantly green or green and yellow with blue, yellow and red in localized parts of the plumage such as the bend of the wing, head and face, or underparts. They are thus a phenotypically disparate group.

The monotypic genera Thectocercus , Diopsittaca , Guaruba , Leptosittaca , and Ognorhynchus are recovered as a clade, which was sister to Psittacara . Relationships within the clade have biogeographical cohesion. The sister pair of Ognorhynchus and Leptosittaca are relatively restricted-range species endemic to midmontane parts of the northern to western Andes. Sister to them are the other three genera, which form a subclade, mainly in lowlands east of the Andes. Overall, the latter three are more widespread than Leptosittaca and Ognorhynchus , notwithstanding Guaruba being fragmented and rare. Each is as phenotypically unique as might be expected. We recommend no changes to generic taxonomy and in particular we reject synonymy of Leptosittaca within Aratinga as is occasionally proposed (e.g., Forshaw and Knight, 2010). Of the five, only Diopsittaca nobilis and Thectocercus acuticaudatus have described subspecies, but we know of no suggestions to recognize any of these at species rank. Although both species have subspecies with large disjunctions that warrant phylogeographic investigations. Maximum likelihood estimates of node ages in this clade range from 2.5–6.4 Mya (fig. 9).