Abstract
The flying squirrels of the tribe Pteromyini (Family Sciuridae) currently include 15 genera of which the genus Biswamoyopterus comprises two recognized species, B.biswasi Saha, 1981 and B.laoensis Sanamxay et al., 2013. These two species were each described from only one specimen that are separated from each other by 1,250 kilometres in southern Asia, where they occur in northeast India and central Lao PDR respectively. In 2017 and 2018, two specimens of Biswamoyopterus were discovered from Mount Gaoligong, west Yunnan province, southwest China (between the type locality of the two recognized species). This study aimed to evaluate the taxonomic status of these two newly acquired specimens of Biswamoyopterus by comparing their morphology with the two described species of the genus. The results of this study showed that the specimens from Yunnan province (China) differed from both B.laoensis and B.biswasi in both pelage colour and craniology, and should be recognised as a distinct species, B.gaoligongensissp. nov., which is formally described here. This study contributes to the understanding of the flying squirrels of southern Asia and identifies an additional species that appears to be endemic to southwest China; however, more research is required to provide details of its ecology, distribution, and conservation status.
Highlights
The flying squirrels of the tribe Pteromyini (Family Sciuridae) currently comprise 52 species of recent mammals that are placed in 15 genera
The genus Biswamoyopterus Saha, 1981 is the most recently described in the tribe and initially only included Biswamoyopterus biswasi Saha, 1981 based on a single specimen collected in Namdapha National Park, northeast India (Saha 1981)
Biswamoyopterus biswasi was placed in its own genus by Saha (1981) as it was considered to exhibit a unique combination of characters that distinguish it from other genera including: 1) large body size, cylindrical tail, and well-developed uropatagium similar to Petaurista, Aeretes and Aeromys; 2) the presence of ear tufts similar to Belomys and Trogopterus; and 3) cuspidate brachyodont dentition similar to Hylopetes and Aeromys
Summary
The flying squirrels of the tribe Pteromyini (Family Sciuridae) currently comprise 52 species of recent mammals that are placed in 15 genera. Biswamoyopterus biswasi was placed in its own genus by Saha (1981) as it was considered to exhibit a unique combination of characters that distinguish it from other genera including: 1) large body size, cylindrical tail, and well-developed uropatagium (tail membrane or interfemoral membrane) similar to Petaurista, Aeretes and Aeromys; 2) the presence of ear tufts similar to Belomys and Trogopterus; and 3) cuspidate brachyodont dentition similar to Hylopetes and Aeromys In addition to these characters, Biswamoyopterus was recognised to have pale-yellow incisors similar to Aeromys and Eupetaurus (Corbet and Hill 1992). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed Biswamoyopterus biswasi as critically endangered due to hunting and habitat loss from logging (Molur 2016) and Biswamoyopterus laoensis as data deficient (Kennerley 2017)
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