Touit
| Touit | |
|---|---|
| Brown-backed parrotlet, Touit melanonotus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Family: | Psittacidae |
| Subfamily: | Arinae |
| Genus: | Touit G.R. Gray, 1855 |
| Type species | |
| Psittacus huetii Temminck, 1830 | |
| Species | |
|
see text | |
Touit is a genus of Neotropical parrots in the family Psittacidae.
The genus was introduced by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1855 with the scarlet-shouldered parrotlet (Touit huetii) as the type species. The genus name is derived from the extinct Tupi language that was spoken by native people in Brazil: Tuí eté means "really little parrot". In 1648 the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave used Tuiete for a small parrot in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae.
The genus contains the following eight species:
| Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Touit batavicus | Lilac-tailed parrotlet | Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela | |
| Touit huetii | Scarlet-shouldered parrotlet | Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela | |
| Touit costaricensis | Red-fronted parrotlet | Central America in Costa Rica and Panama | |
| Touit dilectissimus | Blue-fronted parrotlet or red-winged parrotlet | coastal Andes to Peru | |
| Touit purpuratus | Sapphire-rumped parrotlet | Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. | |
| Touit melanonotus | Brown-backed parrotlet | south-eastern Brazil from Bahia to southern São Paulo | |
| Touit surdus | Golden-tailed parrotlet | eastern Brazil. | |
| Touit stictopterus | Spot-winged parrotlet | Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru | |
