Darters are cormorant-like water birds with very long necks and long, straight beaks. They often swim with only the neck above water, and are fish_eaters.
There are either two or four closely_related species in the darter family, Anhingidae. The Anhinga of the Americas (Anhinga anhinga) is clearly individual, the Indian, African, and Australian darters can be regarded as either three very similar species, or a single species with three widely separated subspecies (A. melanogaster melanogaster, A. melanogaster rufa and A. melanogaster novaehollandiae). In either case, all four share very similar behaviour and habitat.
This group is related to other Pelecaniformes as below:
There is also an extinct species from Mauritius known only from bones, the Mauritian Darter, Anhinga nanus.
The Anhinga is native to the Americas. The Indian Darter is widespread eastwards from the Indonesia, and differs in appearance from African and American darters most recognisably by its white lateral neck stripe.
The African Darter occurs in tropical sub-SaharanAfrica, and differs in appearance from Indian and American Darter most recognisably by its thin white lateral neck stripe against a rufous background colour.
Fossil evidence shows the Anhingidae to be present in the early Miocene and the Phalacro- coracidae to exist in the Eo-Oligocene (Phos- phorites du Quercy; Mourer-Chauvir 1982).
The putative cormorant Phalacrocorax subvolans Brodkorb 1956, from the early Miocene of Florida, is moved from the Phalacrocoracidae to the Anhingidae and should be known as Anhinga subvolans (Brodkorb 1956).
SYSTEMATICS Family Anhingidae Ridgway 1887 The proximal ends of humeri of the Anhin- gidae may be distinguished from those of the Phalacrocoracidae using two characters (Miller 1966).
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