The

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

genus ''Apus'' comprise some of the Old World members of the family

Apodidae The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely ...

, commonly known as

swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, ...

s. They are among the fastest birds in the world. They resemble

swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

s, 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.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Apus'' was erected by the Italian naturalist

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italian physician and naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "Linnaeus of the Au ...

in 1777 based on

tautonymy A tautonym is a scientific name of a species in which both parts of the name have the same spelling, such as ''Rattus rattus''. The first part of the name is the name of the genus and the second part is referred to as the ''specific epithet'' in ...

and the

common swift The common swift (''Apus apus'') is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the barn swallow or house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between t ...

which had been given the binomial name ''Hirundo apus'' by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1758. The name ''Apus'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of

with no feet (from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

α, ''a'', "without", and πούς, ''pous'', "foot"). Before the 1950s, there was some controversy over which group of organism should have the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

name ''Apus''. In 1801, Bosc gave the small

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

organisms, known today as ''

Triops ''Triops'' is a genus of small crustaceans in the order Notostraca (tadpole shrimp). The long-lasting resting eggs of several species of ''Triops'' are commonly sold in kits as a pet. The animals hatch upon contact with fresh water. Most adult-st ...

,'' 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 Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italian physician and naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "Linnaeus of the Au ...

in 1777 . It was not until 1958 that the controversy finally ended when the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) ruled against the use of the genus name ''Apus'' for the crustaceans and instead recognized the term ''Triops''.

Species

The genus contains 20 species: *

Cape Verde swift The Cape Verde swift or Alexander's swift (''Apus alexandri'') is a small bird of the swift family found only in the Cape Verde Islands. It has been recorded from all the islands except Santa Luzia although it probably breeds only on Santiago, ...

, ''Apus alexandri'' *

Common swift The common swift (''Apus apus'') is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the barn swallow or house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between t ...

, ''Apus apus'' *

Plain swift The plain swift (''Apus unicolor'') is a medium-sized swift. Although this bird is superficially similar to a barn swallow or house martin, it is not related to those passerine species. The resemblances between the groups are due to convergent ev ...

, ''Apus unicolor'' *

Nyanza swift The Nyanza swift (''Apus niansae'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Identification The Nyanza swift, also known as the brown swift, is a medium ...

, ''Apus niansae'' *

Pallid swift The pallid swift (''Apus pallidus'') is a small bird, superficially similar to a barn swallow or house martin. It is, however, completely unrelated to those passerine species, since the swifts are in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances betwe ...

, ''Apus pallidus'' *

African black swift The African black swift (''Apus barbatus''), also known as the African swift or black swift, is a medium-sized bird in the swift family. It breeds in Africa discontinuously from Liberia, Cameroon, Zaire, Uganda and Kenya southwards to South Afri ...

, ''Apus barbatus'' *

Malagasy black swift The Malagasy black swift (''Apus balstoni'') or Madagascar swift, is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is endemic to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. Habitat Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests a ...

, ''Apus balstoni'' *

Fernando Po swift The Fernando Po swift (''Apus sladeniae'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found in Angola, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Nigeria. The specific epithet is for Constance Sladen Constance Sladen (11 August 184817 Janua ...

''Apus sladeniae'' *

Forbes-Watson's swift Forbes-Watson's swift (''Apus berliozi'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It breeds in coastal areas of Somalia and the southern Arabian Peninsula and on the island of Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; ...

, ''Apus berliozi'' *

Bradfield's swift Bradfield's swift (''Apus bradfieldi'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southern ...

, ''Apus bradfieldi'' *

Pacific swift The Pacific swift or fork-tailed swift (''Apus pacificus'') is a species of bird that is part of the Swift family. It breeds in eastern Asia. It is strongly migratory, spending the northern hemisphere's winter in Southeast Asia and Austral ...

, ''Apus pacificus'' *

Salim Ali's swift Salim Ali's swift (''Apus salimalii'') is a small bird, superficially similar to a house martin. It is, however, completely unrelated to those passerine species, since swifts are in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between the groups are ...

, ''Apus salimalii'' *

Blyth's swift Blyth's swift (''Apus leuconyx''), is a small bird, superficially similar to a house martin. It is, however, completely unrelated to those passerine species, since swifts are in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between the groups are due t ...

, ''Apus leuconyx'' *

Cook's swift Cook's swift (''Apus cooki'') is a small bird, superficially similar to a house martin. It is, however, completely unrelated to those passerine species, since swifts are in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between the groups are due to con ...

, ''Apus cooki'' * Dark-rumped swift, ''Apus acuticauda'' *

Little swift The little swift (''Apus affinis''), is a small species of swift found in Africa and southwestern Asia, and are vagrants and local breeders in southern Europe. They are found both in urban areas and at rocky cliffs where they build nests in a wa ...

, ''Apus affinis'' *

House swift The house swift (''Apus nipalensis'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found in Japan, Nepal, and Southeast Asia. It is capable of flying long distances by alternately shutting off hemispheres of their brain in-flight. In May 2 ...

, ''Apus nipalensis'' *

Horus swift The Horus swift (''Apus horus'') is a small bird in the Swift (bird), swift family. Horus, whose name this bird commemorates, was the ancient Egyptian god of the sun, son of Osiris and Isis. Description The Horus swift is 13–15 cm long an ...

, ''Apus horus'' *

White-rumped swift The white-rumped swift (''Apus caffer'') is a species of swift. Although this small bird is superficially similar to a house martin, it is not closely related to that passerine species. The resemblances between the swallows and swifts are due ...

, ''Apus caffer'' * Bates's swift ''Apus batesi'' Known fossil species are: *''Apus gaillardi'' (Middle/Late Miocene of La Grive-St.-Alban, France) *''Apus wetmorei'' (Early - Late Pliocene? of SC and SE Europe) *''Apus baranensis'' (Late Pliocene of SE Europe) *''Apus submelba'' (Middle Pleistocene of Slovakia) The Miocene ''"Apus" ignotus'' is now placed in '' Procypseloides''.

References

{{Authority control Bird genera Taxa named by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli