Systematics

Long considered conspecific with L. coccineus and †L. wolstenholmei, but recent DNA study (Reding et al. 2009 Reding, D.M., Foster, J.T., James, H.F., Pratt, H.D. and Fleischer, R.C. (2009). Convergent evolution of ‘creepers’ in the Hawaiian honeycreeper radiation. Biol. Lett. 5(2): 221–224. Close ) revealed genetic distances among the three to be equivalent to that between them and sister-species L. caeruleirostris; this, coupled with color and apparent nesting differences, supports treatment as separate species.

No variation has been reported.

No subspecies have been named.

On the basis of skull, tongue, and muscle morphology, Hawaiian honeycreepers—of which Loxops is an example—traditionally were ranked as a family, Drepandinidae, closely related to finches of the family Fringillidae (Sushkin 1929 Sushkin, P. P. (1929). On the systematic position of the Drepanidae. Kopenhagen: Verhandl. VI Int. Ornith. Kongr. Close , Beecher 1953a Beecher, W. J. (1953). A phylogeny of the oscines. Auk 70:270–333. Close , Raikow 1977 Raikow, R. J. (1977). The origin and evolution of the Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanididae). Living Bird 15:95-117. Close ). In apparent support of this taxonomy, blood allozymes (Johnson et al. 1989d Johnson, N. K., J. A. Marten and C. J. Ralph. (1989d). Genetic evidence for the origin and relationships of Hawaiian honeycreepers (Aves: Fringillidae). Condor 91:379-396. Close ) suggested possible relationships between the Hawaiian honeycreepers and the Emberizidae sensu lato, and morphology of the horny palate led Koblik (Koblik 1994 Koblik, E. A. (1994). Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanididae, Aves): cardinals or finches? Zool. Zh. 73:97-103. Close ) to suggest that the honeycreepers are unlikely to be derived from the Fringillidae and thus ought to retain family rank, allied either to the Fringillidae or to the Emberizidae. Yet research on genetic variation, chiefly DNA–DNA hybridization (Sibley and Ahlquist 1982a Sibley, C. G. and J. E. Ahlquist. (1982a). The relationships of the Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepaninini) as indicated by DNA-DNA hybridization. Auk 99:130-140. Close ) and mitochondrial DNA sequence, as well as on cranial osteology (Olson and James 1982b Olson, S. L., and H. F. James (1982). Prodromus of the fossil avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology no. 365, Washington, DC, USA. Close , James and Olson 1991 James, H. F. and S. L. Olson. (1991). Descriptions of thirty-two new species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part 2: Passeriformes. Ornithological Monographs 46. Close ), suggested so close a relationship the honeycreeper clade is now treated as a subfamily, Drepandininae, of the Fringillidae (American Ornithologists' Union 1998a American Ornithologists' Union (1998). Check-list of North American Birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC, USA. Close , James 2004 James, H. F. (2004). The osteology and phylogeny of the Hawaiian finch radiation (Fringillidae: Drepanidini), including extinct taxa. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 141 (2):207-255. Close , Jønsson and Fjeldså 2006 Jønsson, K. A. and J. Fjeldså. (2006). A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). Zoologica Scripta 35 (2):149-186. Close , Lerner et al. 2011 Lerner, H.R.L., Meyer, M., James, H.F., Hofreiter, M. and Fleischer, R.C. (2011). Multilocus resolution of phylogeny and timescale in the extant adaptive radiation of Hawaiian honeycreepers. Current Biology 21: 1838–1844. Close , Zuccon et al. 2012 Zuccon, D., R. Prŷs-Jones, P. C. Rasmussen, and P. G. P. Ericson (2012). The phylogenetic relationships and generic limits of finches (Fringillidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 62(2):581–596. Close ).

Relationships among the species of Loxops have been in flux, with the genus being deployed from a broad “catch all” (e.g., Amadon 1950 Amadon, D. (1950). The Hawaiian Honeycreepers (Aves, Drepaniidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 95:151-262. Close ) to the present narrow collection of a few species. For many years Loxops coccineus referred to polytypic species formerly present on Oahu and Maui and currently found solely on Hawaii, but after Pratt (Pratt 2014 Pratt, H.D. (2014). A consensus taxonomy for the Hawaiian honeycreepers. Occ. Pap. Mus. Nat. Sci. Louisiana State Univ. 85: 1–20. Close ) argued that the extinct taxa differed from each other as much as did recently split allospecies of Chlorodrepanis (the amakihis), which led to a split of L. wolstenholmei Rothschild 1893d Rothschild, W. (1893d). [Descriptions of Hawaiian birds]. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 1:56-59. Close , the Oahu Akepa, and L. ochraceus Rothschild 1893d Rothschild, W. (1893d). [Descriptions of Hawaiian birds]. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 1:56-59. Close , the Maui Akepa, from L. coccineus, the Hawaii Akepa (Chesser et al. 2015 Chesser, R. T., R. C. Banks, K. J. Burns, C. Cicero, J. L. Dunn, A. W. Kratter, I. J. Lovette, A. G. Navarro-Sigüenza, P. C. Rasmussen, Jr. Remsen, J. V., J. D. Rising, D. F. Stotz and K. Winker. (2015). Fifty-sixth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 132 (3):748-764. Close ). The nearest relative to this trio is L. caeruleirostris, the Akekee of Kauai (Pratt 1980 Pratt, H. D. (1980). Intra-island variation in the 'Elepaio on the island of Hawaii. Condor 82:449-458. Close , Lepson and Pratt 1997 Lepson, J. K. and H. D. Pratt. 1997. ʻAkekeʻe (Loxops caeruleirostris). In The Birds of North America, No. 295 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington D.C. Close , Tarr and Fleischer 1995b Tarr, C. L. and R. C. Fleischer. (1995b). "Evolutionary relationships of the Hawaiian honeycreepers (Aves, Drepanidinae)." In Hawaiian biogeography: evolution on a hot spot., edited by W. L. Wagner and V. A. Funk, 147-159. Washington, D.C: Smithson. Inst. Press. Close ).

Older literature often referred to Loxops ochraceus Rothschild, 1893, as L. aurea (or Himatione aurea) “Finsch, 1880,” a result of Finsch’s invalid application of the name Drepanis aurea Dole, 1878, described from Hawaii, to birds on Maui (Olson 1994 Olson, S. L. (1994). Type specimens of Hawaiian birds named by Sanford Ballard Dole. Pacific Science 48:339-343. Close ).

'Akepa means "lively" or "nimble" in Hawaiian, which appropriately describes this restless bird. The name may also be derived from kepa , meaning "to cut obliquely" or "turn to one side" (Pukui and Elbert 1986 Pukui, M. K. and S. H. Elbert. (1986). Hawaiian dictionary. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press. Close ), possibly referring to this species' curved bill. Formerly also called 'Akepakepa on O'ahu I., 'Akepeu'ie on O'ahu and Maui Is., and 'Akakane on Hawai'i I. Loxops either means "twisted face" (Berger 1981 Berger, A. J. (1981). Hawaiian Birdlife. Second edition. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, HI, USA. Close ), derived from Greek and named for crossed bill-tips; or is derived from Greek loxos , "crosswise," and opsis , "having the appearance of," because bill is reminiscent of Loxia crossbills. Junior synonym Hypoloxias from Greek hupo , "somewhat like," and Loxia . Specific name and most subspecific names refer to color: coccineus for scarlet, aurea for golden, ochraceus for brownish or ochraceous yellow, and rufus for ruddy or rufous orange; wolstenholmei (see Systematics: Subspecies) named after an assistant collector working for Walter Rothschild in the 1890s.

Unknown in the fossil and subfossil record, despite extensive collections from Maui (Olson and James 1982, James and Olson 1991).