 Until recently, the birds in this genus were thought to belong to the family Meliphagidae (honeyeaters) because they looked and acted so similar to members of that family, including many morphological details.A 2008 study argued, on the basis of a phylogenetic analysis of DNA from museum specimens, that the genera "Moho" and "Chaetoptila" do not belong to the Meliphagidae but instead belong to a group that includes the waxwings and the palmchat; they appear especially close to the silky-flycatchers.The authors proposed a family, Mohoidae, for these two extinct genera.