IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Deraniyagala, P.E.P. | |
| A new subspecies of rusty spottet cat from Ceylon | |
| 1956 Spolia Zoyhnia (28): 113-114 | |
The Rusty spotted cat is restricted to Ceylon and South India with Pondicheheri the type locality. Recently a separate subspecies has been created for Ceylon with the type locality Mausakanda, Gammaduva, Central Province, elevation 3000 feet. Pocock (1939) who created this new subspecies appears to have examined five skins from the mountain area of Ceylon and one from the coastal area of Weligatta. He remarks that this Iast is greyer and scarcely distinguishable from the skin of typical rubiginious from Khandala, except that the head1 is darker, not so grey ". The Colombo museum contains seven flat skins of which five possess rusty colored spots and are light brownish in color, while the other two are a bluish-grey with black spots and bands dorsally, dark brown spots laterally. It is significant that the two latter skins are from the dry zone as was Pocock's specimen from Welligatta near Tissamaharama in the southern province. Comparison of these Ceylon skins and skulls with those of five Indian specimens kindly lent by Dr. Salim Ali from the collection of the Bombay Natural History Society (Table 1) now reveals that the rusty spotted cat undoubtedly occurs as two subspecies in Ceylon: one already named phiillipsi from the moister regions, and a hitherto un-named subspecies from low country dry zone which is here named koladivius. |
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