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

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. ''Loris'' is one genus in this subfamily and includes the slender lorises, ''Nycticebus'' is the genus containing the slow lorises, and ''Xanthonycticebus'' is the genus name of the pygmy slow loris.

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. 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. 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, leaving their infants behind in trees or bushes. Before they do this, they bathe their young with allergenic

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 Lemuriformes 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, along with the family Galagidae, the galagos. This superfamily is a sister taxon of Lemuroidea, the lemurs. Within Lorinae, there are ten species (and several more subspecies) of lorises across three genera: * Family Lorisidae ** 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'' ****

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, ''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, ''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 The Bangka slow loris (''Nycticebus bancanus'') is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris that is native to southwestern Borneo and the island of Bangka. Originally considered a subspecies or synonym of the Bornean slow loris ('' ...

, ''Nycticebus bancanus'' **** Bengal slow loris, ''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, ''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 The Kayan River slow loris (''Nycticebus kayan'') is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris that is native to the northern and central highland region of the island of Borneo. The species was originally thought to be a part of th ...

, ''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