Loris is the
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...
for the
strepsirrhine mammal
A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...
s of the subfamily Lorinae
(sometimes spelled Lorisinae
) in the family
Lorisidae. ''Loris'' is one genus in this subfamily and includes the
slender lorises, ''Nycticebus'' is the genus containing the
slow loris
Slow lorises are a group of several species of Nocturnality, nocturnal Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhine primates that make up the genus ''Nycticebus''. Found in Southeast Asia and nearby areas, they range from Bangladesh and Northeast India in the ...
es, and ''Xanthonycticebus'' is the genus name of the
pygmy slow loris.
Description
Lorises are
nocturnal
Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatur ...
and
arboreal.
They are found in
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...
and woodland forests of India, Sri Lanka, and parts of
southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
. Their locomotion is a slow and cautious climbing form of
quadrupedalism. Some lorises are almost entirely
insectivorous, while others also include
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
s,
gums,
leaves
A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...
, and
slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced ...
s in their diet.
Lorises, like most strepsirrhines, have a special adaptation called a "
toothcomb" in their lower front teeth, which they use for grooming their fur and even injecting their venom.
Female lorises practice ''infant parking'', leaving their infants behind in trees or bushes. Before they do this, they bathe their young with
allergenic
saliva that is acquired by licking patches on the insides of their elbows which produce a mild toxin that discourages most
predator
Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...
s,
[ though orangutans occasionally eat lorises.
]
Taxonomic classification
The family Lorisidae is found within the infraorder Lemuriformes and superfamily Lorisoidea, along with the family Galagidae, the galagos. This superfamily is a sister taxon of Lemuroidea, the lemur
Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...
s. Within Lorinae, there are ten species (and several more subspecies) of lorises across three genera:
* Family Lorisidae
** Subfamily Perodicticinae
** Subfamily Lorinae
*** Genus '' Loris''
**** Gray slender loris, ''Loris lydekkerianus''
***** Highland slender loris, ''L. lydekkerianus grandis''
***** Mysore slender loris, ''L. lydekkerianus lydekkerianus''
***** Malabar slender loris, ''L. lydekkerianus malabaricus''
***** Northern Ceylonese slender loris, ''L. lydekkerianus nordicus''
**** Red slender loris, ''L. tardigradus''
***** Dry Zone slender loris, ''L. tardigradus tardigradus''
***** Horton Plains slender loris, ''L. tardigradus nyctoceboides''
*** Genus '' Xanthonycticebus''Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
)
References
External links
{{Authority control
*
Taxa named by John Edward Gray