Apus

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Divisio: Archosauria
Cladus: Avemetatarsalia
Cladus: Ornithodira
Subtaxon: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauriformes
Cladus: Dracohors
Cladus: Dinosauria
Ordo: Saurischia
Cladus: Eusaurischia
Subordo: Theropoda
Cladus: Neotheropoda
Cladus: Averostra
Cladus: Tetanurae
Cladus: Avetheropoda
Cladus: Coelurosauria
Cladus: Tyrannoraptora
Cladus: Maniraptoromorpha
Cladus: Maniraptoriformes
Cladus: Maniraptora
Cladus: Pennaraptora
Cladus: Paraves
Cladus: Eumaniraptora
Cladus: Avialae
Infraclassis: Aves
Cladus: Euavialae
Cladus: Avebrevicauda
Cladus: Pygostylia
Cladus: Ornithothoraces
Cladus: Ornithuromorpha
Cladus: Carinatae
Parvclassis: Neornithes
Cohors: Neognathae
Cladus: Neoaves
Superordo: Caprimulgimorphae
Ordo: Apodiformes

Familia: Apodidae
Subfamilia: Apodinae
Tribus: Apodini
Genus: Apus
Species: A. acuticauda – A. affinis – A. alexandri – A. apus – A. balstoni – A. barbatus – A. batesi – A. berliozi – A. bradfieldi – A. caffer – A. horus – A. niansae – A. nipalensis – A. pacificus – A. pallidus – A. unicolor

Name

Apus Scopoli, 1777
References
Introductio ad Historianum naturalem p. 483

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.
Taxonomy

The genus Apus was erected by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1777 based on tautonymy and the common swift which had been given the binomial name Hirundo apus by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758.[1][2][3] The name Apus is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of swallow with no feet (from Ancient Greek α, a, "without", and πούς, pous, "foot").[4]

Before the 1950s, there was some controversy over which group of organism should have the genus name Apus.[5] 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 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.[6]
Species

The genus contains 20 species:[7]

Cape Verde swift, Apus alexandri
Common swift, Apus apus
Plain swift, Apus unicolor
Nyanza swift, Apus niansae
Pallid swift, Apus pallidus
African black swift, Apus barbatus
Malagasy black swift, Apus balstoni
Fernando Po swift Apus sladeniae
Forbes-Watson's swift, Apus berliozi
Bradfield's swift, Apus bradfieldi
Pacific swift, Apus pacificus
Salim Ali's swift, Apus salimalii
Blyth's swift, Apus leuconyx
Cook's swift, Apus cooki
Dark-rumped swift, Apus acuticauda
Little swift, Apus affinis
House swift, Apus nipalensis
Horus swift, Apus horus
White-rumped swift, 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

Scopoli, Giovanni Antonio (1777). Introductio ad historiam naturalem (in Latin). Pragae: Apud Wolfgangum Gerle. p. 483.
Peters, James Lee, ed. (1940). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 4. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 244.
Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturæ per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, Volume 1 (in Latin) (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 192.
Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 52. ISBN 1408125013.
O. S. Møller; J. Olesen; 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.
Hemming, Francis, ed. (1958). "Opinion 502". Opinions and Declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Vol. 18. London: International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature. pp. 65–120.
Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2017). "Owlet-nightjars, treeswifts & swifts". World Bird List Version 7.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 June 2017.