Phylogeny The genus
Ploceus was introduced by the French naturalist
Georges Cuvier in 1816. The
type species was subsequently designated as the
baya weaver. The genus name is from
Ancient Greek πλοκευς
plokeus meaning "weaver", and is derived from the Greek word πλεκω
plekō "to entwine". Based on recent
DNA-analysis, the genus
Ploceus is almost certainly
polyphyletic. If all species currently included in the genus would remain and the genus would be made monophyletic, it would have to encompass the entire subfamily Ploceinae. The Ploceinae can be divided into two groups. In the first group, the widowbirds and bishops (genus
Euplectes) are sister to a clade in which the genera
Foudia and
Quelea are closest relatives and which further includes the Asiatic species of
Ploceus, i.e.
P. manyar,
P. philippinus,
P. benghalensis,
P. megarhynchus, (and
P. hypoxanthus, although untested). Since
Georges Cuvier picked
P. philippinus as the
type species, these five species would logically remain assigned to the genus
Ploceus. Basic to the second group is a clade consisting of both species so far included in
Ploceus that live on Madagascar,
P. nelicourvi and
P. sakalava, and these are morphologically very distinct from the remaining species. These two species could in future be assigned to the genus
Nelicurvius that was erected by
Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850, but which was merged with
Ploceus later on. This second group further contains the genera
Malimbus and
Anaplectes, and all remaining
Ploceus species. As
Malimbus is the earlier name, erected by Vieillot et al. in 1805, the remaining species of
Ploceus, as well as
Anaplectes rubiceps, could in future be assigned to
Malimbus. These changes are largely corroborated by morphological revisions. Provided that the other genera that have not been proposed to be merged into an extended "
Malimbus" are monophyletic, the following (incomplete) tree expresses current insights. |2= }} }}
Species list , below) and village weaver (Ploceus cucullatus subsp. nigriceps'') The genus contains 66 species. ==References==