Melithreptus is a genus of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. Its members are native to Australia. It is generally considered to contain seven species, although some authors have classified the related blue-faced honeyeater within this genus. The genus was originally defined by French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1817. William John Swainson had coined the term Eidopsarus in 1837. He named the black-headed honeyeater Eidopsarus affinis in 1839, which Gould, likely unaware, described as Melithreptus melanocephalus in 1844.