Psittacula
Members of the parrot genus Psittacula or Afro-Asian ring-necked parakeets as they are commonly known in aviculture originate from Africa to South-East Asia. It is a widespread group with a clear concentration of species in south Asia, but also with representatives in Africa and the islands of the Indian Ocean. This is the only genus of Parrot which has the majority of its species in continental Asia. Of all the extant species only Psittacula calthropae, Psittacula caniceps and Psittacula echo do not have a representative subspecies in any part of mainland continental Asia. The rose-ringed parakeet, Psittacula krameri, is one of the most widely distributed of all parrots.
The other two Asian genera, Loriculus and Psittinus are represented by only two species each, which occur in the mainland part of Asia. The majority of the Loriculus species occur on islands. Moreover, since Loriculus is spread across both sides of the Wallace Line it can be considered more Australasian than Asian.
These parrots mostly have green plumage, with adults having coloured heads. The bill is stout, and the tail is long and graduated.
The genus Psittacula was introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800.[1] The type species was subsequently designated as the red-breasted parakeet.[2] The name of the genus is a diminutive of the Latin word psittacus for a "parrot".[3]
Recent genetic evidence has found that the genus Psittacula is likely paraphyletic; for example, genetic analysis has supported merging short-tailed parrots of the genus Tanygnathus, Psittinus, and the extinct Mascarinus with Psittacula.[6] An alternative classification system to this was proposed by Braun et al. (2019) that splits the genus Psittacula into multiple monophyletic genera in order to preserve Tanygnathus, Psittinus, and Mascarinus as distinct genera. After the proposed split, the only remaining species in Psittacula sensu stricto are P. derbiana, P. caniceps, and P. alexandri.[7] This is also the taxonomic system followed by the IUCN Red List and BirdLife International. The list of split or monophyletic genera and species (and any of their allied species) is displayed below:
P. bensoni was not classified in the original study and it has not been reclassified to Psittacula sensu lato by the IUCN or BirdLife, so it is still classified in Lophopsittacus under this taxonomy.[8] P. caniceps was not classified in the original study, but kept in Psittacula by the authorities that incorporated this taxonomy.[9]
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