Laotian food markets prove rich in undiscovered fauna
August 2013. A new species of the flying squirrel has been discovered on a market stall in Lao PDR. A single specimen was collected from a local food market at Ban Thongnami, Pak Kading District, Bolikhamxai Province.
The new species shows close affinities to a similar squirrel discovered in India in 1981 some 1250 kilometres away, which, until this day, is still only known from a single specimen. However, it differs substantially in colour. The single specimen was found in an area of central Lao PDR, which is characterised by its extensive limestone karst formations and which is home to other rare endemic rodents, including the Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus), itself discovered in a food market, and the Lao limestone rat (Saxatilomys paulinae).
Genus includes just 2 species with 1 known specimen in each
In March-May, 1981, Dr. Shyamrup Biswas of the Zoological Survey India collected a unique flying squirrel from a proposed biosphere reserve in Namdapha, Tirap District, Arunachal Pradesh, India. It was subsequently described as a new genus and species, Biswamoyopterus biswasi Saha (1981), the Namdapha flying squirrel.
The species was listed as Critically Endangered in the IUCN Red List, and it hasn't been seen since. However, until now, the genus was only known from the single specimen.
In September 2012, a team from the National University of Laos undertook a survey of flying squirrels in the informal food markets of northern, central and southern Lao PDR. In the market at Ban (village) Thongnami, they observed several species for sale as ‘bush-meat'. In addition, there was a female specimen of a large flying squirrel, which superficially resembled P. philippensis but differed in a number of external characters. On subsequent examination in the university museum, this individual was also found to have cranial and dental characters that clearly differentiated it not just from Petaurista philippensis but from the genus Petaurista itself.
Courtesy of Zootaxa, click here to go to the online paper.
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