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 contrast ...

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. Collec ...

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s 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 Asia. ...

. ''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 Archipe ...

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-evergre ...

Description

Lorises are

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

and

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, 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. Th ...

. 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 Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, 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 United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. 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 A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

, 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 A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

, and

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less 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 shell, or only a smal ...

s 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 Allergy, allergies. In techni ...

saliva Saliva (commonly referred to as spit) is an extracellular fluid produced and secreted by salivary glands in the mouth. In humans, saliva is around 99% water, plus electrolytes, mucus, white blood cells, epithelial cells (from which DNA can be ...

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 genus ...

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 SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

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 Le ...

, 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 ar ...

s. This superfamily is a sister taxon of Lemuroidea, the

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) 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 exist ...

s. Within Lorinae, there are ten species (and several more subspecies) of lorises across three genera: * Family

** 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 contain ...

'' ****

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-evergre ...

, ''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 Archipe ...

'' **** 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 ''Nycticebus borneanus'', the Bornean slow loris, is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris that is native to central south Borneo in Indonesia. Formerly considered a subspecies or synonym of '' N. menagensis'', it was promot ...

, ''N. borneanus'' ****

Sunda slow loris The Sunda slow loris (''Nycticebus coucang'') or greater slow loris is a Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris native to Indonesia, West Malaysia, southern Thailand and Singapore. It measures from head to tail and wei ...

, ''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 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 means "less recen ...

)

References

{{Authority control * Taxa named by John Edward Gray