Ploceus
Bocage's weaver (P. temporalis) and Bertram's weaver (P. bertrandi) ♀
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Ploceidae
Genus:	Ploceus Cuvier, 1816
Type species
Loxia philippina[1] Linnaeus, 1766
Species
See text
Synonyms[2]
Hyphanthurgus Sundevall, 1872 Hyphanturgus Cabanis, 1851 Nelicurvius Bonaparte, 1850 Nelicurvus Pollen, 1863 Notiospiza Oberholser, 1905 Othyphantes Shelley, 1896 Pachyphantes Shelley, 1896 Phormoplectes Reichenow, 1903 Ploceus victoriae Ash, 1986 Ploceys Billberg, 1828 Ploceëlla Oates, 1874 Plocion Merrem, 1826 Plocus Lafresnaye, 1835 Sharpia Barboza de Bocage, 1878 Simplectes Lesson, 1844 Sitagra Reichenbach, 1850 Sitagroides Roberts, 1947 Sycobrotus Cabanis, 1851 Symplectes Swainson, 1837 Textor Temminck, 1827 Thomasophantes Sclater, 1925

Ploceinae, 1st group

Black-breasted weaver
"true Ploceus"

Madagascar fody
(genus Foudia)

Red-billed quelea
(genus Quelea)

Southern red bishop
(genus Euplectes)

Ploceinae, 2nd group

Nelicourvi weaver
(genus Ploceus)
"reinstated Nelicurvius"

Cassin's malimbe
(genus Malimbus)
"extended Malimbus"

Red-headed weaver
(genus Anaplectes)
"extended Malimbus"

Southern masked weaver
(genus Ploceus)
"extended Malimbus"

Ploceus is a genus of birds in the weaver family, Ploceidae. They are native to the Indomalayan and Afrotropical realms.

Taxonomy and systematics

Phylogeny

The genus Ploceus was introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1816.^[3] The type species was subsequently designated as the baya weaver.^[4] The genus name is from Ancient Greek πλοκευς plokeus meaning "weaver", and is derived from the Greek word πλεκω plekō "to entwine".^[5]

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.^[6] These changes are largely corroborated by morphological revisions.^[7][8] 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.