Sri Lankan spotted chevrotain
Sri Lankan spotted chevrotain | |
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Sri Lanka spotted chevrotain at Field Museum, mounted specimen | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Tragulidae |
Genus: | Moschiola |
Species: | M. meminna
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Binomial name | |
Moschiola meminna (Erxleben, 1777)
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Synonyms | |
Moschus meminna Erxleben, 1777 |
Moschiola meminna is a species of even-toed ungulate in the chevrotain family (Tragulidae). Particularly in the old literature, M. meminna often refers to the spotted chevrotains as a whole. Today, the name is increasingly restricted to the Sri Lankan spotted chevrotain or white-spotted chevrotain, with the Indian spotted chevrotain M. indica[2] and/or the yellow-striped chevrotain M. kathygre treated as distinct species.
In Sri Lanka, this species is found in the dry zone and is replaced in the wet zone by the yellow-striped chevrotain.[3]
Description
Head and body length in the species typically is 55–60 cm. It is dull brown in color with three or four dotted white stripes going longitudinally along flank.
References
- ^ Template:IUCN2008 Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern.
- ^ IUCN Redlist
- ^ Groves, C. & Meijaard, E. (2005) Intraspecific variation in Moschiola, the Indian Chevrotain. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Supplement 12:413-421 PDF Archived 2008-07-27 at the Wayback Machine
External links