Hemiphaga

Hemiphaga
Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Subfamily: Ptilinopinae
Genus: Hemiphaga
Bonaparte, 1854
Type species
Columba novaeseelandiae
Gmelin, 1789
Species

See text

Hemiphaga is the genus containing two species of large pigeons from New Zealand.

There are two subspecies of New Zealand pigeon, Hemiphaga novaseelandiae: H. n. novaseelandiae of mainland New Zealand and the Norfolk pigeon (H. n. spadicea) of Norfolk Island, now extinct. The subspecies differed in their plumage colour and shape.

In 2001, it was proposed that a third subspecies, H. n. chathamensis or the Chatham Island pigeon, was distinct enough to be raised to full species status as H. chathamensis. This has since been accepted by most authorities.

Taxonomy

The genus Hemiphaga was introduced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1854 with the New Zealand pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) as the type species. The name combines the Ancient Greek hēmi meaning "half-" or "small" with the end of the genus name Carpophaga introduced by Prideaux John Selby in 1835.

The genus contains two species:

Image Scientific name Common name Distribution
Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae New Zealand pigeon or kererū Northland to Stewart Island/Rakiura and offshore islands
Hemiphaga chathamensis Chatham pigeon or parea Chatham Islands in New Zealand

This page was last updated at 2024-01-14 19:29 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari