Herpestes Illiger 1811
Creators
Description
Herpestes Illiger, 1811. Prodr. Syst. Mamm. Avium., p. 135.
TYPE SPECIES: Viverra ichneumon Linnaeus, 1758, by absolute tautonomy, through the replaced name Ichneumon Lacépède, 1799 (Melville and Smith, 1987).
COMMENTS: Revised by Pocock (1919, 1937, 1941a) and Bechthold (1939). Coetzee (1977b), and Hayman (in Sanderson, 1940) included Xenogale (see discussion under naso). Allen (1924), considered only ichneumon in this genus and separated sanguineus and pulverulentus into Galerella; for support, he contrasted the large ichneumon with the smaller sanguineus-pulverulentus complex and reported proportional differences in measurements of skeleton and skull. His rationale has been repeated, in some cases verbatum, by Rosevear (1974), Ansell (1978), Smithers (1983), Meester et al. (1986), and Watson and Dippenaar (1987). Taylor et al. (1991) presented an allozyme analysis and argued for generic recognition, however, they did not include Asiatic Herpestes, and their consensus tree made the placement of the sanguineus / pulverulentus clade equivocal. Fredga's (1972) comparative chromosome analysis looked at variation including Asiatic and African Herpestes, and based on this, recognition of Galerella would make Herpestes paraphyletic. Comparison of measurements from Allen (1924), Rosevear (1974), and Smithers (1983) for African forms, and Bechthold (1939) and Pocock (1941a) for Asiatic forms reveals that the large morphological gaps originally identified by Allen (1924), dissolve when Asiatic species are included. Ellerman et al. (1953) and Wozencraft (1989b) suggested that differences between these taxa and other Herpestes are less than those found within Herpestes. Morphological criteria similar to that used by Allen (1924) have mostly been used at the specific level in other carnivores. Although the case is not strong, many recent authors have recognized Galerella and this is provisionally followed here (see comments under Galerella).
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Related works
- Is part of
- Book chapter: 10.5281/zenodo.7359191 (DOI)
- Book chapter: http://publication.plazi.org/id/BD1F4E51C329747CFFD6FC3FFFE0142F (URL)
Biodiversity
- Family
- Herpestidae
- Genus
- Herpestes
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Order
- Carnivora
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Scientific name authorship
- Illiger
- Taxon rank
- genus
- Taxonomic concept label
- Herpestes Illiger, 1811 sec. Wozencraft, 1993
References
- Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classis, ordines, genera, species cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tenth ed. Vol. 1. Laurentii Salvii, Stockholm, 824 pp.
- Melville, R. V., and J. D. D. Smith (eds.). 1987. Official lists and indexes of names and works in zoology. International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 366 pp.
- Pocock, R. I. 1919. The classification of the mongooses (Mungotidae). Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 9, 3: 515 - 524.
- Pocock, R. I. 1937. The mongooses of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 39 (2): 211 - 245.
- Pocock, R. I. 1941 a. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Mammalia. Vol. II. Carnivora (suborders Aeluroidae (part) and Arctoidae). Taylor and Francis, Ltd., London, 503 pp.
- Bechthold, G. 1939. Die asiatischen Formen der Gattung Herpestes. Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, 14: 113 - 219.
- Coetzee, C. G. 1977 b. Order Carnivora. Part 8. Pp. 1 - 42, in The mammals of Africa: An identification manual (J. Meester and H. W. Setzer, eds.) [issued 22 Aug 1977]. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C., not continuously paginated.
- Sanderson, I. T. 1940. The mammals of the north Cameroon forest area. Being the results of the Percy Sladen expedition to the Mamfe Division of the British Cameroons. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, 24: 623 - 725.
- Allen, J. A. 1924. Carnivora collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 47: 73 - 281.
- Rosevear, D. R. 1974. The carnivores of West Africa. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), London, 723: 1 - 548.
- Ansell, W. F. H. 1978. The mammals of Zambia. National Parks and Wildlife Service, Chilanga, 126 pp.
- Smithers, R. H. N. 1983. The mammals of the Southern African Subregion. University of Pretoria, Republic of South Africa, 736 pp.
- Meester, J. A. J., I. L. Rautenbach, N. J. Dippenaar, and C. M. Baker. 1986. Classification of southern African mammals. Transvaal Museum Monograph, 5: 1 - 359.
- Watson, J. P., and N. H. Dippenaar. 1987. The species limits of Galerella sanguinea (Ruppell, 1836), G. pulverulenta (Wagner, 1839) and G. nigrata (Thomas, 1928) in southern Africa (Carnivora: Viverridae). Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum Bloemfontein, 5 (14): 356 - 414.
- Taylor, P. J., G. K. Campbell, J. A. J. Meester, and D. van Dyk. 1991. A study of allozyme evolution in African mongooses (Viverridae: Herpestinae). Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, 56 (3): 135 - 145.
- Fredga, K. 1972. Chromosome studies in mongooses (Carnivora, Viverridae). Thesis summary, faculty of sciences of the University of Lund, 11 pp.
- Wozencraft, W. C. 1989 b. Classification of the Recent Carnivora. Pp. 569 - 593, in Carnivore behavior, ecology and evolution (J. L. Gittleman, ed.). Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 620 pp.