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loris

{{Short description|Subfamily of primates}}

{{Other uses}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| name = Lorises

| fossil_range = Miocene to present

| taxon = Lorinae

| authority = Gray, 1821

| image = Smit.Faces of Lorises.jpg

| image_caption = Joseph Smit's Faces of Lorises (1904)

| subdivision_ranks = Genera

| subdivision = {{plainlist|

| synonyms =

  • Lorisinae

}}

Loris is the common name for the strepsirrhine mammals of the subfamily Lorinae{{MSW3 Groves|pages=122-123}} (sometimes spelled Lorisinae{{cite journal | last1 = Brandon-Jones | first1 = D. | last2 = Eudey | first2 = A. A. | last3 = Geissmann | first3 = T. | last4 = Groves | first4 = C. P. | last5 = Melnick | first5 = D. J. | last6 = Morales | first6 = J. C. | last7 = Shekelle | first7 = M. | last8 = Stewart | first8 = C.-B. | title = Asian Primate Classification | page = 100 | journal = International Journal of Primatology | volume = 25 | issue = 1 | year = 2004 | url = http://www.gibbons.de/main/papers/pdf_files/2004asianprimates.pdf | doi = 10.1023/b:ijop.0000014647.18720.32 | s2cid = 29045930 }}) 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 and arboreal.{{cite book |author1=Ronald M. Nowak |author2=Ernest Pillsbury Walker |title=Walker's Primates of the World |url=https://archive.org/details/walkersprimateso0000nowa |url-access=registration |quote=loris OR lorises. |date=28 October 1999 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-6251-9}} They are found in tropical and woodland forests of India, Sri Lanka, and parts of southeast Asia. Their locomotion is a slow and cautious climbing form of quadrupedalism. Some lorises are almost entirely insectivorous, while others also include fruits, gums, leaves, and slugs in their diet.{{cite book |title = Introduction to Physical Anthropology |first1=Robert |last1=Jurmain |first2=Lynn |last2=Kilgore |first3=Wenda |last3=Trevathan |first4=Russell L. |last4=Ciochon |first5=Eric |last5=Bartelink |year = 2008 |display-authors=2 |isbn=978-1337099820}}{{Page needed|date=February 2020}}

Lorises, like most strepsirrhines, have a special adaptation called a "toothcomb" in their lower front teeth, which they use for grooming their fur and even injecting their venom.{{cite journal |title = Extreme primates: Ecology and evolution of Asian lorises |last1 = Nekaris |first1=K A I |journal=Evol Anthropol |year=2014 |volume=23 |issue=5 |pages=177–87 |doi=10.1002/evan.21425 |pmid=25347976 |s2cid = 1948088}}

Female lorises practice infant parking, leaving their infants behind in trees or bushes. Before they do this, they bathe their young with allergenic saliva that is acquired by licking patches on the insides of their elbows which produce a mild toxin that discourages most predators, though orangutans occasionally eat lorises.{{cite web |url=http://www.orangutan.org/orangutan-facts/orangutan-ecology |title=Orangutan Ecology |publisher= Orangutan Foundation International |access-date=2014-01-14 }}

Taxonomic classification

The family Lorisidae is found within the infraorder Lemuriformes and superfamily 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:{{R|msw3}}

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

{{Wikispecies-inline|Lorinae|Loris}}

{{Lorisidae nav}}

{{Primates}}

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Category:Taxa named by John Edward Gray