Iole is a genus of songbirds in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. They are native to tropical eastern Asia, from India to China and south through Southeast Asia to northern Indonesia.
Taxonomy The genus Iole was introduced in 1844 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth to accommodate a single species, Iole olivacea Blyth, 1844. This is the type species of the genus. This species was moved to the genus Hypsipetes, together with Hypsipetes olivaceus that had been introduced in 1837 by the English naturalists William Jardine and Prideaux John Selby. Hypsipetes olivacea was a replacement name for the bird that had earlier been depicted in Vol. 3, plate 148 with the provisional name Hypsipetes ganeesa ?. The volumes were issued in parts. For the publication dates see: Under the rules of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), Iole olivacea Blyth, 1844 became a junior secondary homonym and is therefore permanently invalid, even now that the taxa are no longer considered congenic. The name Iole olivacea Blyth, 1844 has been replaced by Iole olivacea crypta Oberholser, 1918, which is now treated as a full species, the buff-vented bulbul.
Although this genus was formerly merged into Hypsipetes, molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that these two lineages are not each other's closest relative.
Species The genus contains the following seven species:
Image Common name Scientific name Distribution Finsch's bulbul Iole finschii Malaysia Sulphur-bellied bulbul Iole palawanensis Palawan Olive bulbul Iole viridescens Northeast India and western Indochina Buff-vented bulbul Iole crypta Thailand, Malay peninsula and Sumatra Charlotte's bulbul Iole charlottae Borneo Cachar bulbul Iole cacharensis Northeast India and Bangladesh Grey-eyed bulbul Iole propinqua Indochina and adjacent southern China
Former species Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus Iole: Yellow-browed bulbul (as Iole indica) Yellow-browed bulbul (icterica) (as Iole icterica) Cinereous bulbul (as Iole cinerea) Mindoro bulbul (as Iole Mindorensis) Visayan bulbul (as Iole Guimarasensis) Zamboanga bulbul (as Iole rufigularis) Streak-breasted bulbul (as Iole siquijorensis) Romblon bulbul (as Iole cinereiceps) Cebu bulbul (as Iole monticola)
References
Further reading Gregory, Steven M. (2000): Nomenclature of the Hypsipetes Bulbuls (Pycnonotidae). Forktail 16: 164–166. PDF fulltext Pasquet, Éric; Han, Lian-Xian; Khobkhet, Obhas & Cibois, Alice (2001): Towards a molecular systematics of the genus Criniger, and a preliminary phylogeny of the bulbuls (Aves, Passeriformes, Pycnonotidae). Zoosystema 23(4): 857–863. PDF fulltext