Morphological review of the genus Eupherusa (Trochilidae) does not support recognition of the monotypic genus Dicranurania Sangster et al., 2023

Sangster et al. (2023) erected a new genus (Dicranurania) for the Mexican Woodnymph [Thalurania] ridgwayi (Nelson, 1900), which phylogenetic evidence suggests is the most likely sister group of the genus Eupherusa Gould, 1857, and distantly related to (and polyphyletic with) the other species of Thalurania Gould, 1848. Here, with a representative sample of study skins, I demonstrate that their morphological diagnosis of Dicranurania was based on a broad mischaracterisation of Eupherusa phenotypes, which improperly exaggerated the distinctiveness of [T.] ridgwayi. Therefore, I encourage systematists to classify [T.] ridgwayi as a fifth species of Eupherusa, and relegate Dicranurania to its synonymy.