| Forest swallow | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Hirundinidae |
| Genus: | Atronanus de Silva TN, Fernando, Robbins, Cooper, JC, Fokam & Peterson, 2018 |
| Species: | A. fuliginosus |
| Binomial name | |
| Atronanus fuliginosus (Chapin, 1925) | |
| Synonyms | |
Petrochelidon fuliginosa | |
Theforest swallow (Atronanus fuliginosus) is a little-known species of swallow in the familyHirundinidae, found inCameroon,Republic of the Congo,Equatorial Guinea,Gabon, andNigeria.
The species was previously placed in the genusPetrochelidon, within the ‘mud-nester’ clade of swallows, yet its plumage, morphology, and nesting behavior did not align well with those of other major swallow lineages. As a consequence, and also employing molecular phylogenetic approaches, De Silva et al. (2018) placed this species in the swallow phylogenetic tree, firmly within the ‘mud nester’ clade, but outside of the clade corresponding toPetrochelidon. This outcome led De Silva et al. (2018) to document and describe formally a distinct, generic-level lineage of swallow endemic to the Lower Guinean forest region of central Africa.
De Silva et al. (2018) proposed to recognize the distinctiveness of this taxon at the generic level. This species was originally described in the genusLecythoplastes (Chapin, 1925) withPreuss's cliff swallowPetrochelidon preussi.Lecythoplastes had been proposed originally based onpreussi as a type species byReichenow (1898), andpreussi falls firmly withinPetrochelidon in all of their phylogenetic analyses. As such,Lecythoplastes must remain submerged inPetrochelidon; therefore De Silva et al. erected a new genus,Atronanus, comprising the monotypic forest swallow.[2]
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