A preliminary note on the chromosome complementof the House Swift, Apus affinis
ANDAYANI N., ASTUTI D. P. and SOMADlKARTA S.Abstract:
The karyotype of Apus affinis presented by Bhunya and Mohanty (1987 showed a remarkable difference of chromosome number (78) compared to the other three swift species studi ed so far 62, 64 and 62 respectively). Re-examining its chromosome number revealed a discordant result, with only 68 chromosomes. A comparison of the karyotype of A. affinis with that of A. apus shows a great difference in the number of macro- and microchromosomes, despite a morphological resemblance of macrochromosomes I to 6. The possible mechanism which can account for the addition of chromosome number of A. affinis is discussed.