Picus (bird)

The genus Picus was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The genus name is the Latin word for a woodpecker. Picus was a figure in Roman mythology, the first king of Latium who was changed into a woodpecker by the sorceress Circe. Of the 13 species in the genus listed by Linnaeus, the English naturalist William Swainson designated the European green woodpecker (Picus viridis) as the type species. The genus contains 13 species: ==Former species==

The following were formerly included in Picus, but are now placed in Chrysophlegma. • Greater yellownape, Chrysophlegma flavinucha • Checker-throated woodpecker, Chrysophlegma mentalis • Banded woodpecker, Chrysophlegma miniaceus An extinct woodpecker has been described from a fossil of a left tarsometatarsus dating from late Miocene. It may belong to this genus and has been given the binomial name Picus peregrinabundus. ==References==