Heliosciurus Trouessart, 1880

Thomas, Howard H, Best, Troy L & Agwanda, Bernard, 2019, Heliosciurus rufobrachium (Rodentia: Sciuridae), Mammalian Species 51 (978), pp. 61-69 : 61-62

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1093/mspecies/sez010

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:4B94D3EF-4242-4918-9580-63133F66DEBD

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03EF2C66-4575-FF8B-FEEC-FB8DFC85FD4A

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Heliosciurus Trouessart, 1880
status

 

Heliosciurus Trouessart, 1880 View in CoL

Heliosciurus Trouessart, 1880:292 View in CoL . Type species Sciurus gambianus Ogilby,1835:103 , designated by Opinion 464of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1957) in which Sciurus annulatus Desmarest, 1822:338 was suppressed.

CONTEXT AND CONTENT. Order Rodentia View in CoL , suborder Sciuromorpha View in CoL , family Sciuridae View in CoL , subfamily Xerinae View in CoL , tribe Protoxerini View in CoL . The genus Heliosciurus View in CoL currently contains six species: Heliosciurus gambianus View in CoL , H. mutabilis View in CoL , H. punctatus View in CoL , H. rufobrachium View in CoL , H. ruwenzorii View in CoL , and H. undulatus ( Thorington and Hoffmann 2005) View in CoL . The generic name is derived from a combination of two Greek words, helios meaning sun and skioura, which is a compound of the Greek words skia (shade) and oura (tail), implying that its tail is held upright as a sunshade ( Rosevear 1969). The following identification key for the species is based on that published by Monadjem et al. (2015):

1. Red or reddish-brown on limbs, contrasting with duller dorsal pelage............................................. H. rufobrachium Limbs View in CoL not red and not contrasting with dorsal pelage.......... 2

2. Conspicuous mid-ventral white stripes (flanked by cream or gray ventral pelage) ....................................... H. ruwenzorii View in CoL

No mid-ventral white stripe (although ventral pelage may be white) .................................................................................3

3. Dorsal pelage rich brown, or rufous brown; restricted to southern Africa ................................................ H. mutabilis

Dorsal pelage duller, usually gray or gray-brown; marginally present in southern Africa.................................................. 4

4. Larger (greatest length of skull> 51 mm); restricted to eastern regions of Kenya and Tanzania.......... H. undulatus

Smaller (greatest length of skull <51 mm); absent from eastern regions of East Africa ............................................ 5

5. Dorsal pelage paler gray; occurs in savannas......................... ...................................................................... H. gambianus

Dorsal pelage darker brown-gray; occurs in forests............... ........................................................................ H. punctatus

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodentia

Family

Sciuridae

Loc

Heliosciurus Trouessart, 1880

Thomas, Howard H, Best, Troy L & Agwanda, Bernard 2019
2019
Loc

Heliosciurus

TROUESSART, E. L. 1880: 292
OGILBY, W. 1835: 103
DESMAREST, A. G. 1822: 338
1880
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