Two New Species Discovered in Yellow Mountain Scenic Area
The “Yellow Mountain Scenic Area Wild Animal Observation Cooperation Project,” jointly undertaken by the Yellow Mountain Scenic Area Management Committee’s Landscape and Garden Bureau, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment’s Nanjing Environmental Science Research Institute, and Anhui University, has recently achieved major breakthroughs in the classification research of the slow loris genus.
The project team confirmed, through comprehensive morphological and systematic evolutionary analysis, that the species collected from the Floating Stream Monkey Valley in Yellow Mountain Scenic Area belongs to two new mammal species, which have been named ‘Anhui Slow Lory’ (Crocidura anhuiensis) and ‘Huangshan Little Slow Lory’ (Crocidura huangshanensis).
The research findings were published in the English version of ‘Zoological Systematics’ of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Animal Research Institute in its 2019 fourth issue and 2020 first issue.
Researchers explained that slow lorises belong to the Eurasian insectivorous order of the loris family, Crocidurinae, with this genus distributed in Asia, Europe, and Africa, with most species concentrated in tropical and subtropical regions, inhabiting forests, plains, hills, and mountains, primarily feeding on soil insects, and also consuming some plants’ flowers, fruits, and seeds. Slow lorises resemble rats, with body types including small, medium, and large types.
Anhui Slow Lory: Small eyes; rounded ears; the dorsal fur is grayish-brown to black, and the ventral fur is lighter than the dorsal fur; the tail is the same length as the head and body, only 76% of the length of the head and body, the tail is nearly bare, with a sparse short bristly fur on the nearly bare half, with a prominent bristle-like tuft at the tail end; the limbs are partially bare, pink in color, with sparse short hairs at the ankles; the skull is long and narrow, with well-developed first pair of premaxillary teeth, a distinct sagittal ridge. Samples (6 individuals) weigh 10.52-13.51g, head and body length 60.88-78.10mm, tail length 48.34-59.24mm, forefoot length 9.20-9.87mm, hindfoot length 13.52-14.83 mm, ear length 7.74-9.24 mm, cranium length 20.81-22.38mm.
Huangshan Little Slow Lory: Small head; long nose; whiskers extend to the bottom of the ears; small eyes; round ears with prominent auricular fringes; the fur is grayish-brown, with the dorsal fur slightly darker; the limbs are slender, with forefeet and hindfeet having five digits (toes), with small, fleshy protuberances on the toes, with pink palm and sole, partially bare, with sparse brown hairs at the ankles; the tail is approximately 76% the length of the head and body, nearly bare, with a very small amount of long bristly hairs, the tail is almost completely naked, with a prominent bristle-like tuft; the skull is long and flat, without zygomatic arches, the first pair of premaxillary teeth are curved and well-developed, with a distinct sagittal ridge. Samples (5 individuals) weigh 4.35-7.77g, head and body length 50.45-61.97mm, tail length 39.64-45.03mm, forefoot length 6.99-8.33 mm, hindfoot length 11.84-13.82 mm, ear length 7.86-8.70 mm, cranium length 16.88-17.90mm.
Researchers believe that the two new species discovered in the Yellow Mountain Scenic Area all belong to medium-sized slow lorises. The discovery of the Anhui Slow Lory and the Huangshan Little Slow Lory two new species further enriches the mammalian biodiversity of Yellow Mountain Scenic Area, especially the species of mammals, and fills the gap in the research of the slow loris genus in the area.
