Zosterops lateralis
(Latham, 1802) · speciesAt a glance
Sources10 archives
Databases and archives Zosterops lateralis's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation13 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility1 019 835 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI9 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics18 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
IOC World Bird ListIOCbird checklist↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Subspecies flaviceps from Fiji The silvereye or wax-eye (Zosterops lateralis) is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all members of the genus Zosterops, or the entire family Zosteropidae. In New Zealand, the silvereye was first recorded in 1832. It arrived in greater numbers in 1856, and it is assumed that a migrating flock was swept eastwards by a storm. As an apparently self-introduced bird it is protected as a native New Zealand species. Its Māori name, , means "stranger" or more literally, "new arrival".
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology12
Life cycle & reproduction8
Diet & foraging10
Habitat & environment4
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Zosterops lateralis has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Zosterops lateralis carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 782×GoaT · Bird Chromosome Database
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type1 019 835 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions20 of 35 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Australian National Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 807 |
| Sydney, AU | 707 |
| Museums Victorialocation not on record | 234 |
| QVMAGlocation not on record | 179 |
| DOI/NPS, Salem Maritime National Historic Sitelocation not on record | 170 |
| Natick, US | 138 |
| Auckland, NZ | 114 |
| Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallerylocation not on record | 39 |
| Cambridge, US | 32 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 28 |
| Western Australian Museumlocation not on record | 26 |
| Philadelphia, US | 18 |
| Seattle, US | 11 |
| No Voucherlocation not on record | 10 |
| Toronto, CA | 7 |
| Iowa City, US | 6 |
| Brussels, BE | 6 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 5 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 5 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 5 |
| 5 | |
| Albany, US | 4 |
| NSW Dept of Planning, Industry and Environmentlocation not on record | 4 |
| Chicago, US | 3 |
| Los Angeles, US | 3 |
| München, DE | 3 |
| Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territorylocation not on record | 3 |
| SNSDlocation not on record | 3 |
| New Haven, US | 2 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 2 |
| Queensland Department of Environment and Resources Management (DERM)location not on record | 2 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 1 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 1 |
| Ithaca, US | 1 |
| Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Zosterops lateralis was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.