Apus (genus)

Apus
Common swifts (Apus apus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Apodiformes
Family: Apodidae
Genus: Apus
Scopoli, 1777
Species

About 17, see list

The bird genus Apus comprise some of the Old World members of the family Apodidae, commonly known as swifts.

They are among the fastest birds in the world. They resemble swallows, to which they are not related, but have shorter tails and sickle-shaped wings. Swifts spend most of their life aloft, have very short legs and use them mostly to cling to surfaces.

Taxonomic history of Apus

Before the 1950s, there was some controversy over which group of organism should have the genus name Apus.[1] In 1801 Bosc gave the small crustacean organisms known today as Triops the genus name Apus, and later authors continued to use this term. Keilhack suggested (in 1909) that this was incorrect since there was already an avian genus named Apus by Scopoli in 1777 . It wasn't until 1958 when the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) ruled against the use of the genus name Apus and instead recognized the term Triops that the controversy finally ended.

Systematics

Known fossil species are:

The Miocene "Apus" ignotus is now placed in Procypseloides.

References

  1. O. S. Møller, J. Olesen, and J. T. Høeg (2003). "SEM studies on the early larval development of Triops crancriformis (Bosc)(Crustacea: Branchiopoda, Notostraca)". Acta Zoologica 84: 267–284. doi:10.1046/j.1463-6395.2003.00146.x.
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