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Show 1901.] LEMUR MONGOZ AND L. RUBRIVENTER. 263 (3) the characteristic position of its postero-medial wall, as seen from behind, when the skull is held in a horizontal position, with the basis directed upwards (PI. XXII. fig. 10). There are other species of Lemurs (e. g., Lemur macaco, Lemur nigerrimus, Lemur coronatus) in which the pars verticalis of the palatal advances into the cavum nasale in a slightly oblique direction; but in none does it form a high vertical wall as in Lemur mongoz, which therefore is by this character alone at once to be distinguished from all the other species. Lemur fidvus, generally confused with Lemur mongoz, is precisely the one which exhibits no trace of a similar wing-like structure, there being no pneumatic cavity intercalated between the posterior region of the orbit and of the cavum nasale respectively. An equally striking character of the skull of Lemur fulvus is the great vertical extension of the sphenoidal sinus (PI. XXII. fig. 9, ss), which produces a considerable and sudden change of level between this part of the basis and the cavum nasale in advance of the sinus sphenoidalis, the former coming to be situated much higher \ 2. LEMUR RUBRIVENTER. Lemur rubriventer, I. Geoffr. S.-H., C. R xxxi. p. 876 (1850) ; id. Cat.moth.p. 71(1851); H . Schlegel, Nederl.Tijdschr.Dierk.iii.p. 75 (1866); id. Mus. Hist. Nat. Pays-Bas, vii. p. 311 (1876); Jentiuk, Mus. Hist. Nat. Pays-Bas, ix. pp. 61, 62 (1887) (exc. cran. nos. o, p, s); A. Milne-Edwards et A. Grandidier, Hist. Nat. des Mammiferes (Hist de Madagascar, ed. A. Grandidier), x. tome v. Atlas ii. plates 168-170 (1890); Jentink, op cit. xi. pp. 72, 73 (1892) (exc. sp. d); Forsyth Major, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1899, p. 554. Lemur flaviventer, I. Geoffr. S.-H., C. E.. xxxi. p. 876 (1850) ; id. Cat. metb. p. 71 (1851) ; A. Milne-Edwards et A. Grandidier, op. cit. pi. 191 (cranium). Prosimia rufipes, J. E. Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) vii. p 339 (1871): id. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1872, p. 852, pi. 69 (nee Milne-Edwards, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 177). At the Society's meeting of M a y 2, 1899 2, I gave expression to some doubt against the correctness of the view brought forward by Milne-Edwards ', that Gray's Prosimia rufipes is the female of Sclater's Lemur nigerrimus. M y observations may be epitomized as follows:- (1) Gray's species was based upon a male and a female specimen, both of them rufous. (2) I myself have collected numerous specimens of both sexes 1 This is seen also in Grandidier's plate 189. figs. 3, 6 (" Lemur mongoz ") pi 193. figs. 3, 6 (" Lemur albimanus''). Von Lorenz had already rightly guessed that the latter plate does not represent the skull of Lemur albimanus (=L. mongoz, L.). * Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1899, pp. 553, 554. 3 Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1893, pp. 177, 178. 18* |
