The

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

genus ''Apus'' comprise some of the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

members of the family

Apodidae The Apodidae, or swifts, form a family 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 along with hummingbirds. The treeswifts ar ...

, 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 * SWIF ...

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 Latinisation of names, Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italians, Italian physician and natural history, naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first ...

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 Common house martin, house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes. The re ...

which had been given the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Hirundo apus'' by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1758. The name ''Apus'' is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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 classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

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

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

organisms known today as ''

Triops ''Triops'', from Ancient Greek τρία (''tría''), meaning "three", and ὄψ (''óps''), meaning "face" or "eye", is a genus of small crustaceans in the order Notostraca (tadpole shrimp). The long-lasting resting eggs of several species of '' ...

'', 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. The controversy was ended in 1958 when the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

(ICZN) ruled against the use of the genus name ''Apus'' for the crustaceans and recognized the name ''Triops''.

Species

The genus contains 20 species: * Cape Verde swift, ''Apus alexandri'' *

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

, ''Apus apus'' * Plain swift, ''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 s ...

, ''Apus niansae'' *

Pallid swift The pallid swift (''Apus pallidus'') is a Swift (bird), swift (order Apodiformes). Swifts have very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces. The genus name ''Apus'' is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a ty ...

, ''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 Afric ...

, ''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 Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. ...

''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, locally known as Saqatri, is a Yemeni isl ...

, ''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, souther ...

, ''Apus bradfieldi'' *

Pacific swift The Pacific 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 Australia. The general shape a ...

, ''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 ar ...

, ''Apus salimalii'' *

Blyth's swift Blyth's swift (''Apus leuconyx'') is a small species of bird. It is superficially similar to a house martin, but completely unrelated to those passerine species, as swifts are in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between the groups are due ...

, ''Apus leuconyx'' * Cook's swift, ''Apus cooki'' * Dark-rumped swift, ''Apus acuticauda'' *

Little swift The little swift (''Apus affinis''), is a small species of Swift (bird), 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 ...

, ''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 its brain in-flight. It was fo ...

, ''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 boanoi'' (Pliocene of South Africa) *''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