Vanellus vanellus mobbing Circus aeruginosus.jpg

''Vanellus'' is the genus of waders which provisionally contains all lapwings except red-kneed dotterel, ''Erythrogonys cinctus''. The name "''vanellus''" is Latin for "little fan", ''vanellus'' being the diminutive of ''vannus'' (" winnowing fan"). The name is in reference to the sound lapwings' wings make in flight.

Description

These long-legged waders mostly have strongly patterned plumage. Although the most familiar Eurasian lapwing, ''Vanellus vanellus'' ( northern lapwing), has a wispy crest, only two other species do so. Red or yellow facial wattles are a more typical decoration.

Only northern, sociable, white-tailed, grey-headed and brown-chested lapwings are truly migratory species. The Andean lapwing moves downhill in winter.

Spur-winged, blacksmith, river, southern, Andean and pied lapwings are boldly patterned, red-eyed species with a spurred carpal (wrist) joint.

Many species have wattles which can be small (black-headed, spot-breasted, red-wattled and banded lapwings) or large (white-crowned, African wattled, yellow-wattled, Javan, and masked lapwings). The latter species are the largest of the plover family, since several exceed .

Systematics

The genus ''Vanellus'' was erected by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The name was derived by tautonymy from the original binomial name of the northern lapwing ''Tringa vanellus'' introduced by Linnaeus in 1758. ''Vanellus'' is the Medieval Latin for a "lapwing". It is a diminutive of the Latin ''vanus'' meaning "winnowing" or "fan".

The systematics of ''Vanellus'' have hitherto resisted clear resolution. Essentially, no major revision can be brought to agree with another, and up to 19 genera were at one time recognized for the 24 lapwing species. While it might be desirable to split up this large and diverse genus a bit, the morphological characters are a confusing mix of apomorphic and plesiomorphic traits in any one species, with few relationships readily apparent. Molecular data has been found to provide even less sufficient resolution, though the lapwings have not yet been as thoroughly studied under this aspect as other Charadriiformes.Piersma & Wiersma (1996), Thomas ''et al.'' (2004)

The only thing that can be said with a fair degree of certainty is that according to the DNA sequence data one group of 5 species seems to stand out. These are wattle-less lapwings which were separated as ''Anitibyx'', ''Belonopterus'', ''Hoplopterus'' (in the narrow sense) and ''Ptiloscelys''. They are visually very dissimilar, but it is notable that their distribution forms a clean band through the tropical regions of the world except Australia; they might conceivably form a clade. The only species among them that is migratory is the Andean lapwing (''V. resplendens''), which as noted above cannot be allied with the truly migratory lapwings on these grounds. However, if these were to be split off, for one thing it is almost certain that other lineages would also require separation; the new genus' name would probably be ''Hoplopterus'', which is the longest- and most widely used alternative lapwing genus.

List of species in taxonomic order

* Northern lapwing, also known as green plover and as peewit, ''Vanellus vanellus''
Alternatively placed in ''Hemiparra'':
* Long-toed lapwing, ''Vanellus crassirostris''
Alternatively placed in ''Anitibyx'':
* Blacksmith lapwing or blacksmith plover, ''Vanellus armatus''
Alternatively placed in ''Hoplopterus'':
* Spur-winged lapwing or "spur-winged plover", ''Vanellus spinosus''
* River lapwing or "spur-winged lapwing", ''Vanellus duvaucelii''
Alternatively placed in ''Sarciophorus'', ''Lobivanellus'' or ''Hoplopterus'':
* Black-headed lapwing or black-headed plover, ''Vanellus tectus''
Alternatively placed in ''Lobipluvia'' or ''Hoplopterus'':
* Yellow-wattled lapwing, ''Vanellus malabaricus''
Alternatively placed in ''Xiphidiopterus'' or ''Hoplopterus'':
* White-crowned lapwing, white-headed lapwing, white-crowned plover or white-headed plover, ''Vanellus albiceps''
Alternatively placed in ''Stephanibyx'' or ''Hoplopterus'':
* Senegal lapwing or lesser black-winged lapwing, ''Vanellus lugubris''
* Black-winged lapwing or greater black-winged lapwing, ''Vanellus melanopterus''

* Crowned lapwing or crowned plover, ''Vanellus coronatus''
Alternatively placed in ''Afribyx'':
* African wattled lapwing or wattled lapwing, ''Vanellus senegallus''
Alternatively placed in ''Tylibyx'', ''Lobivanellus'' or ''Hoplopterus'':
* Spot-breasted lapwing, ''Vanellus melanocephalus''
Alternatively placed in ''Anomalophrys'':
* Brown-chested lapwing, ''Vanellus superciliosus''
Alternatively placed in ''Microsarcops'' or ''Hoplopterus'':
* Grey-headed lapwing, ''Vanellus cinereus''
Alternatively placed in ''Lobivanellus'' or ''Hoplopterus'':
* Red-wattled lapwing, ''Vanellus indicus''
Alternatively placed in ''Rogibyx'':
* Javan lapwing, Javanese lapwing, or Javanese wattled lapwing, ''Vanellus macropterus''
Alternatively placed in ''Zonifer'', ''Lobivanellus'' or ''Hoplopterus'':
* Banded lapwing, ''Vanellus tricolor''
Alternatively placed in ''Lobibyx'', ''Lobivanellus'' or ''Hoplopterus'':
* Masked lapwing or "spur-winged plover", ''Vanellus miles''
Alternatively placed in ''Chettusia'':
* Sociable lapwing or sociable plover, ''Vanellus gregarius''
Alternatively placed in ''Vanellochettusia'' or ''Chettusia'':
* White-tailed lapwing or white-tailed plover, ''Vanellus leucurus''
Alternatively placed in ''Hoploxypterus'':
* Pied lapwing, ''Vanellus cayanus''
Alternatively placed in ''Belonopterus'':
* Southern lapwing, ''Vanellus chilensis''
Alternatively placed in ''Ptiloscelys'' or ''Belonopterus'':
* Andean lapwing, ''Vanellus resplendens''

Prehistoric species

Species known only from fossil or subfossil remains include:
* '' Vanellus madagascariensis'' (14th century Madagascar)
* ''Vanellus liffyae'' (Late Pliocene of central Australia)
* ''Vanellus lilloi'' (Middle/Late Pleistocene of Centinela del Mar, Argentina)
* ''Vanellus downsi'' (Late Pleistocene of Rancho La Brea, USA)
* ''Vanellus edmundi'' (Late Pleistocene of Talalra, Peru)

The last three of these seem to be very closely related to the southern lapwing and all were placed in ''Belonopterus'' by the describing authors. If '' Viator picis'', also from the Late Pleistocene of Talara, does not belong to an entirely extinct lineage, it might belong to that group too; it seems too large to be closely related to the smallish pied lapwing.

Neither the Early Oligocene '' Dolicopterus'' from Ronzon, France nor the supposed mid- Oligocene lapwing ''"Vanellus" selysii'' of Rupelmonde (Belgium) unquestionably belong here. While their age suggests that they may indeed represent some ancient lapwings, the fossil remains have not been studied for many decades and a review is seriously overdue.Mlíkovský (2002)

References

Sources

* Campbell, Kenneth E. Jr. (2002): A new species of Late Pleistocene lapwing from Rancho La Brea, California nglish with Spanish abstract ''Condor'' 104: 170–174.
HTML abstract and first page image
* Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002): ''Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe''. Ninox Press, Prague.
PDF fulltext
!-- This should be treated with extreme caution as regards merging of species. Splits are usually good though. See also critical review in Auk121:623-627 here http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200404/ai_n9396879 -->
* Piersma, Theunis & Wiersma, Popko (1996): Family Charadriidae (Plovers). ''In:'' del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (eds.): ''Handbook of Birds of the World'' (Volume 3: Hoatzin to Auks): 384–443, plates 35–39. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
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Further reading

* Hayman, Peter; Marchant, John & Prater, Tony (1986): ''Shorebirds: an identification guide to the waders of the world''. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
* Terres, John K. & National Audubon Society (1980): ''The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds''. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

External links

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Lapwing videos
on the Internet Bird Collection

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13426919

Bird genera
Taxa named by Mathurin Jacques Brisson