Mellisuga

Mellisuga is a genus of hummingbirds in the family Trochilidae. They are notable for being the first and second smallest bird species in the world.

Mellisuga
Mellisuga helenae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Strisores
Order:	Apodiformes
Family:	Trochilidae
Tribe:	Mellisugini
Genus:	Mellisuga Brisson, 1760
Type species
Trochilus minimus Linnaeus, 1758

The genus was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the vervain hummingbird as the type species.^[1][2] The name Mellisuga is a combination of the Latin words mel or mellis, meaning "honey" and sugere, meaning "to suck".^[3]

Extant species

The genus contains two species:^[4]

Genus Mellisuga – Brisson, 1760 – two species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Bee hummingbird Male Female	Mellisuga helenae (Lembeye, 1850)	Cuba and Isla de la Juventud	Size: Habitat: Diet:	NT
Vervain hummingbird	Mellisuga minima (Linnaeus, 1758) Two subspecies M. m. minima (Linnaeus, 1758) M. m. vielloti (Shaw, 1812)	Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Jamaica	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC