Systematic status and biogeography of the Javan and small Indian mongooses (Herpestidae, Carnivora)

Abstract

The Javan and small Indian mongooses, ranging from the Middle East to South‐east Asia, are considered as two species or as a single species, varying in size and colour from west to east. In order to clarify their systematic status and to define the limits of their ranges, Cytochrome b sequences were obtained from 27 specimens, and localities of 392 specimens from museum collections were determined. The phylogenetic analyses revealed that the Javan and Small Indian mongooses grouped in two separate clades with their range limits located in Myanmar. The Javan mongoose is in fact closer to the grey mongoose than to the small Indian mongoose.

Molecular systematics and biogeography of the Hemigalinae civets (Mammalia, Carnivora)

“…The Mentawai Islands have been separated from Sumatra at least since the Mid-Pleistocene and might have remained separated despite the sea level fluctuations of the Late Pleistocene (Voris 2000;. The Cytb distance of the Siberut Island individual to other banded civet populations ranged from 4.7 to 5.5%, which is close to the divergence found between other small carnivore species (Veron et al 2007(Veron et al , 2015a(Veron et al , 2015c; our nuclear data also confirmed this strong divergence. Two subspecies have been described from the Mentawai Islands: Hemigalus derbyanus minor Miller, 1903 (South Pagai Island) andH.…”

Endemic Marsh Mongoose Herpestes palustris (Carnivora: Herpestidae) of East Kolkata Wetlands, India: a status report

“…Similarly, an adult male weighs 625-900g, length from tip to tail 61-63cm, body length 32-36cm and tail length 26-28cm (NEWS 2005-06). Veron et al (2007) record head and body length of H. auropunctatus in the Indian subcontinent as 25-32cm. Agrawal et al (1992) have also given the following external measurements of the collected samples of both males and females (all measurements in mm; range with mean in parenthesis).…”

The Indian brown mongoose, yet another invader in Fiji

“…Simberloff et al 2000). A recent study has determined that the small Indian mongoose H. auropunctatus (distributed from India to Myanmar) is a separate species from the Javan mongoose H. javanicus (South-east Asia) (Veron et al 2007, agreeing with Honacki et al 1982. The identification of this species on Fiji has never been debated; authors have agreed that it is H. auropunctatus, and this has been confirmed by molecular data (Veron et al 2007).…”