Silver-backed Needletail

SCI Name:  Hirundapus cochinchinensis
Protonym:  Chaetura cochinchinensis Bull.Soc.Philom.(7), 2 p.52
Taxonomy:  Caprimulgiformes / Apodidae / Hirundapus
Taxonomy Code:  sibnee1
Type Locality:  Saigon, Cochinchina.
Author:  Oustalet
Publish Year:  1878
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

HIRUNDAPUS
(Apodidae; Ϯ White-throated Needletail H. caudacutus nudipes) Portmanteau of genera Hirundo Linnaeus, 1758, swallow, and Apus Scopoli, 1777, swift; “CYPSELUS.  Chætura.   Species 1st. Nudipes, nobis.   ...  Remark. This singular species, by the structure of its feet, opens a passage from Hirundo to Cypselus.  Though variously allied to Pelasgia, Acuta, Caudacuta, and Gigantea, it exhibits, I believe, a distinct type of form—being certainly not a Chætura as defined by STEVENS, nor a Cypselus of ILLIGER; far less a swallow.  It climbs with great power aided equally by its talons and its tail.  Its habitat is the northern region, whence it sometimes wanders into the mountains of the central, avoiding however the open and level country.  I have set it down in my note book as the type of a new genus, called Hirund-apus.” (Hodgson 1837); "Hirund-apus Hodgson, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 5, 1836 (1837), p. 780.  Type, by original designation and monotypy, Cypselus (Chaetura) nudipes Hodgson." (Peters, 1940, IV, p. 232).
Var. Hirundinapus.
Synon. Pallenia.

cochinchinae / cochinchinensis
Cochinchina (= southern Vietnam), Indochina. Cochinchina is a Portuguese name for the area, derived from Malay and Chinese.
● Erroneous TL. Cochinchina (= Java); ex “Verdin de la Cochinchine” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 643, fig. 3 (Chloropsis).
● ex “Oriolus Cochinsinensis” of Brisson 1760 (syn. Oriolus chinensis).

SUBSPECIES

Silver-backed Needletail (rupchandi)
SCI Name: Hirundapus cochinchinensis rupchandi
rupchandi
Thakur Rup Chand or Surja Dawa (1902-1994) Lahauli (India/Tibet) collector, companion of US botanist Dr Walter Koelz (Laurent Raty and Björn Bergenholtz in litt.) (syn. Arborophila atrogularis, syn. Batrachostomus hodgsoni, subsp. Hirundapus cochinchinensis, syn. Otus spilocephalus, syn. Saxicola caprata bicolor, syn. Tickellia hodgsoni, syn. Tragopan blythii) (see dawae).

Silver-backed Needletail (cochinchinensis)
SCI Name: Hirundapus cochinchinensis cochinchinensis
cochinchinae / cochinchinensis
Cochinchina (= southern Vietnam), Indochina. Cochinchina is a Portuguese name for the area, derived from Malay and Chinese.
● Erroneous TL. Cochinchina (= Java); ex “Verdin de la Cochinchine” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 643, fig. 3 (Chloropsis).
● ex “Oriolus Cochinsinensis” of Brisson 1760 (syn. Oriolus chinensis).

Silver-backed Needletail (formosanus)
SCI Name: Hirundapus cochinchinensis formosanus
formosae / formosana / formosanus
Formosa (= Taiwan).