Laotian giant flying squirrel

Biswamoyopterus laoensis is a Southeast Asian flying squirrel. It is only known from a single specimen, which was found in September 2012 as bushmeat at a market in the province zentrallaotischen Bolikhamsai and described by a team of Laotian and a British biologist in 2013.

Features

Biswamoyopterus laoensis is a relatively large flying squirrels and reaches a head -body length of 45.5 cm, with a tail length of 62 cm and a weight of 1.8 kg. The back coat consists of a mixture of red-brown and black hair with an admixture of gray to whitish - gray hair; the belly is with orange hair, mixed with gray hair covered. The wing membrane is densely hairy; the fur there is of the same color as the coat on his back, but less gray. The underside of the wing membrane is only sparsely covered with orange hairs and shows numerous broken black lines. The tail is cylindrical and completely black. Only at the bottom of the base of the tail you can see a small gray spot. The skull of the holotype is 7.44 cm long. The ears are dark gray to black and largely hairless, but have tufts of long black hair at the base of ear. Another small tuft of hair located below the ear middle. The tip of the nasal bone is straight and not rounded. The upper and lower incisors are yellow on its front side. The third premolar is well developed, the fourth exceeds the first molar slightly in size. The first and second molar two well developed bumps on the lip side, and a large and a small bump on the tongue side. An additional small hump is back on a cross Stieg.

Habitat

Since the holotype was found on a market, the habitat of Biswamoyopterus laoensis is not yet known. The market is located in the village of Thongnami between two karst areas that are covered by most pristine evergreen forest or a form adapted to extreme drought flora. In these areas, which might constitute the habitat of Biswamoyopterus laoensis, even the rare rodent species Laonastes aenigmamus and Saxatilomys encountered Paulinae.

System

Biswamoyopterus laoensis belongs to the tribe of the Flying Squirrel ( Pteromyini ) in the family of squirrels ( Sciuridae ). The only other species of the genus Biswamoyopterus is found in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh Namdapha flying squirrel ( Biswamoyopterus biswasi ), which is also known by only a single copy.