HELOGALE PARVULA. 31 



NOTE VIL 

 ON HELOGALE PARVULA, SÜNÜEVALL. 



Dr. F. A. JENTINK. 



November 1888. 



H el o g al e p a r v u l a Sundevall. 



Dr. Gray created in 1861 (P. Z. S. L. p. 308) the genus 

 Helogale and thus separated three small species of African 

 Mungooses with the dental formula I. J , C. 1, P. M. |, 

 M. | = 36 , from the other true Herpestidae. The three 

 species are: Herpestes parvulus Sundevall (1846), collect- 

 ed by Wahlberg in the neighborhood of Natal , Herpes- 

 tes undulatus Peters (1852) from Mossambique, and Ich- 

 neumon taenionotus Smith (1835) from S. Africa (Natal 

 apud Gray). A skull (P. Z. S. L. 1861, p. 308), belong- 

 ing to a skeleton (Catalogue of the bones, 1862, p. 76) 

 of one of Smith's types, was in the British Museum, but 

 it seems that the skeleton has been lost , for in P. Z. S. L. , 

 1 864:, p. 565, Gray states that in the British Museum is 

 a skull only ; meanwhile the teeth had increased in num- 

 ber, from 36 (in 1861) to 40 (in 1864)! Now Gray thought 

 it correct to give another genus-name to that highly in- 

 teresting skull and called it Ariela taenionota and under 

 the very name he cited it in the Catalogue of the Carni- 

 vorous a. s. o. Mammalia, 1869, p. 163. Later on the 

 number of teeth again decreased from 40 (in 1869) to 36 

 (in 1882) and finally Oldfield Thomas (on the African 

 Mungooses, P. Z. S. L. 1882, p. 90) placed it under the 

 synonyma of Crossarchus fasciatus Desmarest, where I hope 

 that it will be buried for ever. 



Notes from the Leyden Museum , Vol, XI. 



