Orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel

The orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel (Dremomys lokriah) is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is found in Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.^[1]

Orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel
From Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve in West Sikkim, India.
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Sciuridae
Genus:	Dremomys
Species:	D. lokriah
Binomial name
Dremomys lokriah (Hodgson, 1836)

Taxonomy

The species was first described as Sciurus lokriah by Hodgson in the year 1836.^[2] He collected the specimens from the South Xizang region of Mount Everest. In 1916, Thomas and Wroughton described a species from the Manipur, India and Chin Hills as D. macmillani.^[3] Later that year, Wroughton also described a subspecies of D. lokriah as D. l. bhotia from the specimens collected from sedochen of Sikkim Himalaya, and Manipur. Thomas in 1922 described two more subspecies, D. l. garonum from Garo Hills, Meghalaya and D. l. subflaviventris from Mishmi Hills, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Moore in 1956 described D. l. pagus from the specimens collected from Chin Hills, Myanmar and Lushai Hills, Mizoram, India. Cai and Zhang in 1980 described another subspecies D. l. motuoensis and Li and Wang described D. l. nielamuensis in 1992 from China.^[4]

Although subspecies of D. lokriah has gone though several revisions, presently, there are total eight known valid subspecies of the Orange-bellied Himalayan Squirrel exists throughout its distribution range. Six of them are distributed in India.^[5] All of the validations of these subspecies were however through morpho-taxonomy and multivariate analysis. Molecular studies on the validation of these subspecies are still to be performed.

Orange bellied Himalayan Squirrel at Gangtok, Sikkim, India

References

1. Molur, S. (2008). "Dremomys lokriah". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2009.{{cite iucn}}: old-form url (help)
2. Hodgson, B.H. (1836). "In Synoptical description of Sundry new animals, enumerated in the catalogue of Nipalese Mammals". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 5: 232.
3. Thomas, O; Wroughton, R. C (1916). "Dremomys macmillani In Scientific results from the mammal survey". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 24: 238.
4. Chatterjee, Paromit; Chandra, Kailash; Saha, Goutam Kumar (2021-05-07). "A Review on of the Subspecies of Dremomys lokriah (Hodgson 1836)". Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 74 (3): 241–248. Bibcode:2021PZooS..74..241C. doi:10.1007/s12595-021-00369-3. ISSN 0974-6919. S2CID 236563330.
5. Chatterjee, Paromit; Chandra, Kailash; Saha, Goutam Kumar (2021-05-07). "A Review on of the Subspecies of Dremomys lokriah (Hodgson 1836)". Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 74 (3): 241–248. Bibcode:2021PZooS..74..241C. doi:10.1007/s12595-021-00369-3. ISSN 0974-6919. S2CID 236563330.

• Thorington, R. W. Jr. and R. S. Hoffman. 2005. Family Sciuridae. pp. 754–818 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.