An international team of researchers has discovered a new species of the genus Biswamoyopterus living in the evergreen broad-leaved forests of Mount Gaoligong in China’s Yunnan province.
The Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus gaoligongensis). Image credit: Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden.
Flying squirrels belong to Pteromyini, a tribe that currently includes 15 genera and about 50 species.
The genus Biswamoyopterus, the most mysterious and rarest amongst all flying squirrels, comprises two large species endemic to southern Asia: the Namdapha flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus biswasi) from northeast India and the Laotian giant flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus laoensis) from central Lao PDR.
Each is only known from a single specimen discovered in 1981 and 2013, respectively.
In 2017, an unusual specimen of Biswamoyopterus was collected from Mount Gaoligong, west Yunnan province, southwest China (between the type locality of the two recognized species).
Initially, the individual was considered to belong to the Namdapha flying squirrel, which had not ever been recorded since its original description in 1981.
However, a closer look at the specimen made it clear that the squirrel exhibited a coloration, as well as skull and teeth anatomy, distinct from any of the previously known species in the genus.
The Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus gaoligongensis). Image credit: Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden.
Subsequently, Dr. Quan Li from the Kunming Institute of Zoology and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and colleagues from China, Australia and the United States conducted a new field survey in the area.
The scientists successfully obtained another specimen and, additionally, recorded observations of two other specimens.
As a result, they added a third member to the genus: the Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus gaoligongensis).
This new species is a large flying squirrel (head and body length is 17.3 inches, or 44 cm; tail length is 20.5 inches, or 52 cm; and body mass is 1.37 kg).
“Its morphological features are closer to the critically endangered and missing Namdapha flying squirrel, but is still readily identifiable as a distinct species,” Dr. Li said.
“The new species was discovered in the ‘blank area’ spanning around 780 miles (1,250 km) between the isolated habitats of the two known species, which suggests that the genus is much more widespread than previously thought.”
“There is still hope for new Biswamoyopterus populations to be discovered in between or right next to the already known localities.”
The Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel is described in a paper published in the journal ZooKeys.
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Q. Li et al. 2019. Discovery and description of a mysterious Asian flying squirrel (Rodentia, Sciuridae, Biswamoyopterus) from Mount Gaoligong, southwest China. ZooKeys 864: 147-160; doi: 10.3897/zookeys.864.33678
