''Moschiola'', the spotted chevrotains, are a genus of small

even-toed ungulate The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing poster ...

s in the family

Tragulidae The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

. They are found in forests in

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 perhaps

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

, and have pale-spotted or -striped upperparts unlike the other Asian members of the family, the mouse-deer of the genus ''

Tragulus ''Tragulus'' is a genus of even-toed ungulates in the family Tragulidae that are known as mouse-deer. In Ancient Greek τράγος (''tragos'') means a male goat, while the Latin diminutive ''–ulus'' means 'tiny'. With a weight of and a leng ...

''.Nowak, R. M. (eds) (1999). ''Walker's Mammals of the World.'' 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press. In former times, the genus was usually treated as

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

. Described as ''Moschus meminna'', for most of the time the name ''Tragulus meminna'' was used, but changed to ''Moschiola meminna'' eventually. In the 21st century, this is increasingly divided into up to three

parapatric In parapatric speciation, two subpopulations of a species evolve reproductive isolation from one another while continuing to exchange genes. This mode of speciation has three distinguishing characteristics: 1) mating occurs non-randomly, 2) gene ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

References

External links

Chevrotains Taxa named by John Edward Gray Mammal genera {{eventoedungulate-stub eo:Tragoledoj