Microspingus Taczanowski 1874

20. Recognize Microspingus Taczanowski, 1874

(type species = Microspingus trifasciatus Taczanowski, 1874, currently Hemispingus trifasciatus), for Hemispingus trifasciatus and merge Poospiza cabanisi Bonaparte, 1850, P. lateralis (Nordmann, 1835), P. erythrophrys Sclater, 1881, P. alticola Salvin, 1895, P. torquata (d’Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837), P. cinerea Bonaparte, 1850, and P. melanoleuca (d’Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837) into Microspingus (Fig. 3) as M. cabanisi, M. lateralis, M. erythrophrys, M. alticola, M. torquatus, M. cinereus, and M. melanoleucus.

Because the name Microspingus is masculine in gender and Poospiza is feminine, the adjectival specific names P. torquata, P. c i n e re a, and P. melanoleuca become M. torquatus, M. cinereus, and M. melanoleucus, respectively. Gender endings for additional names of subspecies recognized by Storer (1970) are not affected by the reclassification of these species in Microspingus.

Comments. Burns et al. (2014) did not include P. lateralis (Nordmann, 1835) among the species they sampled. Poospiza cabanisi was recently split from P. lateralis (Assis et al. 2007); thus, the two species are likely closely related. Therefore, we suggest placing P. lateralis in Microspingus, pending further systematic analysis.