Hypargos

Hypargos is a genus of small seed-eating birds in the family Estrildidae that are found in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Hypargos
Pink-throated twinspot (Hyapargos margaritatus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Estrildidae
Genus:	Hypargos Reichenbach, 1862
Type species
Spermophaga margargaritata pink-throated twinspot Strickland, 1844
Species
See text.

There are species with the common name of twinspot in other genera within the Estrildidae family.

Taxonomy

The genus Hypargos was introduced in 1862 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach to accommodate the pink-throated twinspot.^[1][2] The name combines the Ancient Greek hypo meaning "beneath" with Argos from Argus Panoptes, the many-eyed giant in Greek mythology.^[3] The genus Hypargos is sister to the genus Euschistospiza which contains two more species with "twinspot" in their common name.^[4][5]

Species

The genus contains two species:^[4]

Genus Hypargos – Reichenbach, 1862 – two species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Red-throated twinspot	Hypargos niveoguttatus (Peters, W, 1868)	Angola, Burundi, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia & Zimbabwe	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Pink-throated twinspot Male Female	Hypargos margaritatus (Strickland, 1844)	Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC