Loris is the
common name for the
strepsirrhine
Strepsirrhini or Strepsirhini (; ) is a suborder of primates that includes the lemuriform primates, which consist of the lemurs of Madagascar, galagos ("bushbabies") and pottos from Africa, and the lorises from India and southeast Asia. Colle ...
mammals of the subfamily Lorinae
(sometimes spelled Lorisinae
) in the family
Lorisidae
Lorisidae (or sometimes Loridae) is a family of strepsirrhine primates. The lorisids are all slim arboreal animals and comprise the lorises, pottos and angwantibos. Lorisids live in tropical, central Africa as well as in south and southeast As ...
. ''Loris'' is one genus in this subfamily and includes the
slender loris
The slender lorises (''Loris'') are a genus of loris native to India and Sri Lanka. The genus comprises two species, the red slender loris found in Sri Lanka and the gray slender loris from Sri Lanka and India. Slender lorises spend most of their ...
es, ''Nycticebus'' is the genus containing the
slow loris
Slow lorises are a group of several species of nocturnal strepsirrhine primates that make up the genus ''Nycticebus''. Found in Southeast Asia and bordering areas, they range from Bangladesh and Northeast India in the west to the Sulu Archip ...
es, and ''Xanthonycticebus'' is the genus name of the
pygmy slow loris
The pygmy slow loris (''Xanthonycticebus pygmaeus'') is a species of slow loris found east of the Mekong River in Vietnam, Laos, eastern Cambodia, and China. It occurs in a variety of forest habitats, including tropical dry forests, semi-everg ...
.
Description
Lorises are
nocturnal and
arboreal
Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose nu ...
.
They are found in
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
and woodland forests of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Sri Lanka, and parts of
southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
. Loris locomotion is a slow and cautious climbing form of
quadrupedalism
Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped (from Latin ''quattuor ...
. Some lorises are almost entirely
insectivorous, while others also include
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
s,
gums,
leaves, and
slugs in their diet.
Female lorises practice
infant parking
An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...
, leaving their infants behind in trees or bushes. Before they do this, they bathe their young with
allergenic
An allergen is a type of antigen that produces an abnormally vigorous immune response in which the immune system fights off a perceived threat that would otherwise be harmless to the body. Such reactions are called allergies.
In technical terms ...
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 where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
s,
[ though ]orangutan
Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genu ...
s occasionally eat lorises.
Taxonomic classification
The family Lorisidae is found within the infraorder
Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...
Lemuriformes
Lemuriformes is an infraorder of primate that falls under the suborder Strepsirrhini. It includes the lemurs of Madagascar, as well as the galagos and lorisids of Africa and Asia, although a popular alternative taxonomy places the lorisoids i ...
and superfamily Lorisoidea
Lorisoidea is a superfamily of nocturnal primates found throughout Africa and Asia. Members include the galagos and the lorisids. As strepsirrhines, lorisoids are related to the lemurs of Madagascar and are sometimes included in the infraorder L ...
, along with the family Galagidae, the galago
Galagos , also known as bush babies, or ''nagapies'' (meaning "night monkeys" in Afrikaans), are small nocturnal primates native to continental, sub-Sahara Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are ...
s. This superfamily is a sister taxon of Lemuroidea, the lemur
Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are wet-nosed primates of the superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are endemic to the island of Madagas ...
s. Within Lorinae, there are ten species (and several more subspecies) of lorises across three genera:
* Family Lorisidae
Lorisidae (or sometimes Loridae) is a family of strepsirrhine primates. The lorisids are all slim arboreal animals and comprise the lorises, pottos and angwantibos. Lorisids live in tropical, central Africa as well as in south and southeast As ...
** Subfamily Perodicticinae
Perodicticinae is a subfamily of the family Lorisidae. It includes five species of African primates as shown under taxonomy below.
They have a vestigial tail and index finger. The snout is pointed and the ears and eyes are large. The coat is de ...
** Subfamily Lorinae
*** Genus ''Loris
Loris is the common name for the strepsirrhine mammals 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 conta ...
''
**** Gray slender loris
The gray slender loris (''Loris lydekkerianus'') is a species of primate in the family Loridae. It is native to India and Sri Lanka and inhabits subtropical and tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threa ...
, ''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
The red slender loris (''Loris tardigradus'') is a small, nocturnal strepsirrhine primate native to the rainforests of Sri Lanka. This is No. 6 of the 10 focal species and No. 22 of the 100 EDGE mammal species worldwide considered the most evo ...
, ''L. tardigradus''
***** Dry Zone slender loris, ''L. tardigradus tardigradus''
***** Horton Plains slender loris, ''L. tardigradus nyctoceboides''
*** Genus ''Xanthonycticebus
The pygmy slow loris (''Xanthonycticebus pygmaeus'') is a species of slow loris found east of the Mekong River in Vietnam, Laos, eastern Cambodia, and China. It occurs in a variety of forest habitats, including tropical dry forests, semi-evergre ...
''
**** Pygmy slow loris
The pygmy slow loris (''Xanthonycticebus pygmaeus'') is a species of slow loris found east of the Mekong River in Vietnam, Laos, eastern Cambodia, and China. It occurs in a variety of forest habitats, including tropical dry forests, semi-everg ...
, ''X. pygmaeus''
*** Genus ''Nycticebus
Slow lorises are a group of several species of nocturnal strepsirrhine primates that make up the genus ''Nycticebus''. Found in Southeast Asia and bordering areas, they range from Bangladesh and Northeast India in the west to the Sulu Archip ...
''
**** Bangka slow loris, ''Nycticebus bancanus''
**** Bengal slow loris
The Bengal slow loris (''Nycticebus bengalensis'') or northern slow loris is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina. Its geographic range is larger than that of any other slow loris s ...
, ''N. bengalensis''
**** Bornean slow loris, ''N. borneanus''
**** Sunda slow loris
The Sunda slow loris (''Nycticebus coucang'') or greater slow loris is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris native to Indonesia, West Malaysia, southern Thailand and Singapore. It measures from head to tail and weighs between . ...
, ''N. coucang''
**** Javan slow loris
The Javan slow loris (''Nycticebus javanicus'') is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris native to the western and central portions of the island of Java, in Indonesia. Although originally described as a separate species, it was co ...
, ''N. javanicus''
**** Kayan River slow loris, ''N. kayan''
**** Philippine slow loris
The Philippine slow loris (''Nycticebus menagensis'') is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris that is native to the north and east coastal areas of the island of Borneo, as well as the Sulu Archipelago in the Philippines. The sp ...
, ''N. menagensis''
**** Sumatran slow loris
The Sumatran slow loris (''Nycticebus hilleri'') is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris that is native to Sumatra.
While this species used to be considered a junior synonym of the Sunda slow loris, it is now recognized by the ...
, ''N. hilleri''
**** † ? ''N. linglom'' (fossil, 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
{{Authority control
*
Taxa named by John Edward Gray