Iole is a genus of songbirds in the bulbulfamily, Pycnonotidae. They are native to tropical eastern Asia, from India to China and south through Southeast Asia to northern Indonesia.
Taxonomy and systematics
While some older sources merge this genus into Hypsipetes, this is neither advisable nor technically correct. The two genera stand well apart, and to phylogenetically justify their merging, the entire "Hypsipetes group" of bulbuls would need to be united in a single genus. That would include Hemixos, Ixos, Microscelis and Tricholestes, and probably also Alophoixus and the monotypicSetornis. The hook-billed bulbul may in fact be the closest living relative to the species in Iole, but altogether the present genus may well be a quite basal lineage of the traditional "Hypsipetes group" of bulbuls, with no particularly close relatives among any of these other genera.[2]
Gregory, Steven M. (2000): Nomenclature of the Hypsipetes Bulbuls (Pycnonotidae). Forktail16: 164–166. PDF fulltext
Moyle, Robert G. & Marks, Ben D. (2006): Phylogenetic relationships of the bulbuls (Aves: Pycnonotidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.40(3): 687–695. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.04.015 (HTML abstract)
Pasquet, Éric; Han, Lian-Xian; Khobkhet, Obhas & Cibois, Alice (2001): Towards a molecular systematics of the genus Criniger, and a preliminary phylogeny of the bulbuls (Aves, Passeriformes, Pycnonotidae). Zoosystema23(4): 857–863. PDF fulltext