144 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



"Near Maroantsetra (two days northeast) individuals in the red 

 phase, the only phase seen there, were common. The variegated 

 lemur is diurnal and arboreal, usually seen in pairs." (Rand, 1935, 

 p. 99.) 



Weasel Lemur 



LEPILEMUR MUSTELINUS I. Geoffrey 



L[epilemur] mustelinus I. Geoffrey, Cat. Method. Mamm. [Mus. Paris], pt. 1, 



Primates, p. 76, 1851. ("Madagascar"; type locality restricted by Schwarz 



(1931, p. 420) to "Tamatave.") 

 SYNONYMS: Mixocebus caniceps Peters (1875); Lepidolemur microdon Major 



(1894). 

 Fios.: Peters, Monateb. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin 1874, pi. 1 (facing p. 694), 



1875 (as Mixocebus caniceps) ; Milne Edwards, Grandidier and Filhol, 



1897, pi. 255, pi. 259, fig. 1. 



Only four specimens of this species were collected by the Mission 

 Zoologique Franco-Anglo-Americaine of 1929-31 (Delacour, 1932, 

 p. 220) . This fact, in connection with the meager information con- 

 cerning the animal, indicates that it is one of the less common of 

 the Madagascar lemurs. 



General color rufous; throat white; forehead and cheeks gray; 

 under parts and inner side of limbs yellowish gray; last third of 

 tail brown; rest of tail and lower part of limbs yellowish gray. 

 Head and body, about 350 mm.; tail, 250 mm. (I. Geoffrey, 1851, 

 p. 76.) 



"The range of L. mustelinus includes the moist east and north- 

 east of Madagascar, at least as far south as Betsileo and as far 

 north as Vohemar. It does not occur in the north-west, where L. 

 ruficaudatus is found." Specimens are recorded from: Vohemar; 

 Ankay Forest, NE. of Tananarive; Ampitambe and Antsiraka, 

 Betsimisaraka country; Ankona Forest; Upper Masiatra River, E. 

 Betsileo; and Vinanitelo, "SW." [ = SE.] Betsileo. (Schwarz, 1931, 

 p. 420.) 



G. M. Allen (1918, p. 516) records a specimen from Didy, south 

 of Lake Alaotra. 



All the localities of this species are on the eastern slope of the 

 island, from Vohemar on the north to Vinanitelo on the south ; these 

 localities are littoral or belong to the region of the Hauts-Plateaux. 

 The altitudes where it is found vary from less than 100 m. to more 

 than 1,000 m. It is probably divisible into subspecies not yet de- 

 termiried. All alleged records from the west coast really belong to 

 L. ruficaudatus. (Petit, 1933, p. 34.) 



