Herpestes brachyurus Gray 1836

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Carnivora, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 532-628 : 567

Herpestes brachyurus Gray 1836

Herpestes brachyurus Gray 1836 , Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1836: 88.

Type Locality: "Indian Islands", restricted by Kloss (1917) to "Borneo", however, Thomas (1921 c) believed it to be from " Malacca ". Pocock (1941 a) believed the type to represent a "Malayan Race" .

Vernacular Names: Short-tailed Mongoose.

Subspecies: :

Subspecies Herpestes brachyurus subsp. brachyurus Gray 1836

Subspecies Herpestes brachyurus subsp. hosei Jentink 1903

Subspecies Herpestes brachyurus subsp. javanensis Bechthold 1936

Subspecies Herpestes brachyurus subsp. palawanus Allen 1910

Subspecies Herpestes brachyurus subsp. parvus Jentink 1895

Subspecies Herpestes brachyurus subsp. sumatrius Thomas 1921

Distribution: Indonesia (Kalimantan, Sumatra), Malaysia, Philippine Isls, Singapore, Vietnam.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Bechthold (1939) included hosei (followed here) and fuscus (here considered separate), and listed characteristics suggesting that in some respects, semitorquatus was intermediate between brachyurus and urva ; this was followed by Medway (1977). Bechthold (1939) believed that fuscus (sensu stricto) is most closely related to far-eastern brachyurus forms and considered them conspecific (both forms are short tailed mongooses); however, he gave features of the skull and pelage (used elsewhere at the specific level, i.e., edwardsii vs. javanicus ) that distinguished the S India /Sri Lankan populations from those of SE Asia. Here they are provisionally treated as separate. Schwarz (1947) believed semitorquatus to be a red color morph of the dark brachyurus , although he did not address the most distinguishing feature of the collared mongoose – the collar – present in semitorquatus and absent in brachyurus . Medway (1977), followed by Payne et al. (1985), recognized hosei based on differences in the shape of the coronoid process of the mandible. Fredga (1972) believed fuscus to be intermediate to edwardsii and javanicus , but believed that it should remain separate (followed by Corbet and Hill, 1992). Synonyms allocated according to Pocock (1937) and Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951).