What is "pinicola"

Pinicola is a genus of " grosbeaks" of the finch family, Fringillidae, containing a single species, the pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator).

The crimson-browed finch was formerly included in the genus but was moved to Carpodacus with the rosefinches based on phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences. The molecular genetic studies have shown that the most closely related species to the pine grosbeak are the bullfinches in the genus Pyrrhula.

The original description of the genus name Pinicola by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot is variously dated to 1805, [1.12.]1807, or 1808 as the year of publication. The original description was included in Vieillot’s (1807–1809) Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique septentrionale in tome 1 on page iv (and on plate 1 figure 13 but without associated scientific name immediately on the plate for the illustrated bill). The two volumes of this very rare work were printed in 22 consecutive issues in the course of three years. According to Peterson (2002), 1808 might be the proper publication date of Pinicola. Pinicola Vieillot, 1808 ( Aves, Fringillidae) makes the name Pinicola Brébisson, 1818 a junior homonym and therefore unavailable for a genus of Xyelidae ( Insecta, Hymenoptera).