The genus
Oriolus was erected in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus in the
12th edition of his
Systema Naturae. The
type species is, by
tautonomy,
Oriolus galbula Linnaeus, 1766. This is a
junior synonym of
Coracias oriolus Linnaeus, 1758, the
Eurasian golden oriole. In 1760, French ornithologist
Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his
Ornithologie used
Oriolus as a subdivision of the genus
Turdus, but the
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in 1955 that "
Oriolus Brisson, 1760" should be suppressed. Linnaeus added more than a dozen additional genera when he updated his 10th edition, but he generally based new genera on those that had been introduced by Brisson in his
Ornithologie.
Oriolus is now the only genus for which Linnaeus's 12th edition is cited as the original publication. but some authors have suggested origins in classical Latin
aureolus meaning "golden". Various forms of "oriole" have existed in
Romance languages since the 12th and 13th centuries.
Extant species The genus contains 32
species:
Former species Formerly, some authorities also considered these species (or subspecies) as species within the genus
Oriolus: •
Green figbird (as
Oriolus viridis) •
Brown-eared bulbul (squamiceps) (as
Oriolus squamiceps) ==Distribution and habitat==