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Vanellus
Vanellus miles novaehollandiae
Vanellus vanellus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Charadriidae
Subfamily:	Vanellinae
Genus:	Vanellus Brisson, 1760
Type species
Tringa vanellus Linnaeus, 1758
Species
24, see text
Synonyms
List Afribyx Mathews, 1913 Anomalophrys Sharpe, 1896 Anitibyx Wolters, 1974 Belonopterus Reichenbach, Chaetusia Agassiz, 1846 (unjustified emendation) Cheltusia Verreaux, 1855 (unjustified emendation) Chettusia Bonaparte, 1838 Chetusia Gray, 1841 (unjustified emendation) Choetusia Blyth, 1854 (unjustified emendation) Dorypaltus Brodkorb, 1959 Hemiparra Salvadori, 1865 Hoplopterus Bonaparte, 1831 Hoploxypterus Bonaparte, 1856 Lobibyx Heine Lobipluria Bonaparte, 1856 (lapsus) Lobipluvia Bonaparte, 1856 Lobivanellus Strickland 1841 Microsarcops Sharpe 1896 Ptiloscelys Bonaparte, 1856 Sarciophorus Strickland 1841 Stephanibyx Reichenbach, Rogibyx Mathews 1913 Tylibyx Reichenbach, Vanellochettusia Brandt 1852 Xiphidiopterus Reichenbach, and see text

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 30 cm (12 in).

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.

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.

References

1. "Charadriidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
2. Terres & NAS (1980): p.741
3. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 397. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
4. Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. Vol. 1, p. 48, Vol. 5, p. 94.
5. ^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 235.
6. Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturæ per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, Volume 1 (in Latin). Vol. v.1 (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 148.
7. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 398. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
8. ^ Piersma & Wiersma (1996), Thomas et al. (2004)
9. Goodman, Steven M (1997). "Description of a new species of subfossil lapwing (Aves: Charadriiformes, Charadriidae, Vanellus) from Madagascar". Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. 18: 607–614.
10. Vanesa L. De Pietri; R. Paul Scofield; Gavin J. Prideaux; Trevor H. Worthy (2018). "A new species of lapwing (Charadriidae: Vanellus) from the late Pliocene of central Australia". Emu - Austral Ornithology. 118 (4): 334–343. Bibcode:2018EmuAO.118..334D. doi:10.1080/01584197.2018.1464373. S2CID 90021022.
11. Campbell (2002)
12. Not Dolichopterus, contra Mlíkovský (2002)
13. Mlíkovský (2002)

Sources

• Campbell, Kenneth E. Jr. (2002): A new species of Late Pleistocene lapwing from Rancho La Brea, California . Condor 104: 170–174. doi:10.1650/0010-5422(2002)104 HTML abstract and first page image
• Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002): Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe. Ninox Press, Prague. ISBN 80-901105-3-8 PDF fulltext
• 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. ISBN 84-87334-20-2
• Thomas, Gavin H.; Wills, Matthew A. & Székely, Tamás (2004). "A supertree approach to shorebird phylogeny". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 4: 28. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-4-28. PMC 515296. PMID 15329156.

Further reading

• Hayman, Peter; Marchant, John & Prater, Tony (1986): Shorebirds: an identification guide to the waders of the world. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. ISBN 0-395-60237-8
• Terres, John K. & National Audubon Society (1980): The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 0-394-46651-9

External links

• Media related to Vanellus at Wikimedia Commons
• Data related to Vanellus at Wikispecies
• Lapwing videos on the Internet Bird Collection

v t e Genera of shorebirds and their extinct allies
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Infraclass: Neognathae Clade: Neoaves Order: Charadriiformes
Charadriiformes incertae sedis †Charadriisimilis †Eupterornis? †Fluviatitavis? †Jiliniornis †"Morsoravis" †Nahmavis †Palintropus? †Sarjeantopodus †Scandiavis †Volgavis? †Laornithidae? Laornis †Graculavidae? Dakotornis Graculavus Palaeotringa Telmatornis? Charadrii See below ↓ Scolopaci See below ↓ Lari See below ↓
Charadrii incertae sedis †Cherevychnavis Burhinidae Burhinus Esacus †Genucrassum Pluvianellidae Pluvianellus Chionidae Chionis †Chionoides †Neilus Pluvianidae Pluvianus Pluvianidae Vanellinae †Dolicopterus? Erythrogonys Hoploxypterus Vanellus †Viator Charadriinae Anarhynchus Charadrius †Dorypaltus Elseyornis †Jilniornis Oreopholus Peltohyas Phegornis Pluvialis Thinornis Recurvirostridae Cladorhynchus Himantopus †Kashinia Recurvirostra Ibidorhynchidae Ibidorhyncha Haematopodidae Haematopus
Scolopaci incertae sedis †Hakawai †Scolopacimilis Jacanidae Actophilornis Hydrophasianus Irediparra Jacana †Janipes Metopidius Microparra †Nupharanassa Pedionomidae †Oligonomus Pedionomus Rostratulidae Nycticryphes Rostratula Scolopacidae Actitis Arenaria Bartramia Calidris Coenocorypha †Elorius Gallinago Limnocryptes Limnodromus Limosa †Mirolia Numenius †Nuntius †Paractitis †Parvelorius Phalaropus Prosobonia Scolopax Tringa †Villetus Xenus Thinocoridae Attagis Thinocorus
Lari Alcidae †Divisulcus †Hydrotherikornis †Miocepphus †Pseudocepphus Alcinae Alcini Alca Alle †Pinguinus Uria Synthliboramphini Synthliboramphus Cepphini Cepphus Brachyramphini Brachyramphus Fraterculinae Aethiini Aethia Ptychoramphus Fraterculini Cerorhinca Fratercula †Mancallinae Alcodes Mancalla Miomancalla Praemancalla Dromadidae Dromas Glareolidae †Becassius †Boutersemia †Mioglareola †Paractiornis †"Precursor"? Glareolinae Glareola Stiltia Glareolinae Cursorius Rhinoptilus Laridae Anous Chlidonias Chroicocephalus Creagrus †Feducciavis †Gaviota Gelochelidon Gygis Hydrocoloeus Hydroprogne Ichthyaetus †Laricola Larosterna Larus Leucophaeus †Limicolavis? †Limosavis Onychoprion Pagophila Phaetusa †Pseudosterna Rhodostethia Rynchops Rissa Sterna †Sternalara Sternula Thalasseus Xema Stercorariidae Stercorarius Turnicidae †Cerestenia †Eocliffia? Ortyxelos †Turnipax Turnix

• Vanellus
• Bird genera
• Taxa named by Mathurin Jacques Brisson