Li Quan, Li Xue-You, Jackson Stephen M, Li Fei, Jiang Ming, Zhao Wei, Song Wen-Yu, Jiang Xue-Long
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming China.
Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming China.
Zookeys. 2019 Jul 18;864:147-160. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.864.33678. eCollection 2019.
The flying squirrels of the tribe Pteromyini (Family Sciuridae) currently include 15 genera of which the genus comprises two recognized species, Saha, 1981 and 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 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 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 and in both pelage colour and craniology, and should be recognised as a distinct species, , 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.
鼯鼠族（松鼠科）的鼯鼠目前包括15个属，其中该属包含两个已确认的物种，分别由萨哈于1981年及萨纳姆赛等人于2013年描述。这两个物种均仅依据一个标本被描述，它们在南亚彼此相隔1250公里，分别分布于印度东北部和老挝中部。2017年和2018年，在中国西南部云南省高黎贡山（在两个已确认物种的模式产地之间）发现了该属的两个标本。本研究旨在通过将这两个新获得的该属标本的形态与该属已描述的两个物种进行比较，来评估它们的分类地位。本研究结果表明，来自中国云南省的标本在毛色和颅骨学方面与该属的两个已描述物种均不同，应被认定为一个新物种，即本文正式描述的[新物种名称未给出]。本研究有助于增进对南亚鼯鼠的了解，并确定了一个似乎为中国西南部特有的新物种；然而，还需要更多研究来提供其生态、分布和保护状况的详细信息。
