16 LORIS 



FAMILY 3. NYCTICIBID^E. 



Subfamily 1. Lorisinae. 

 GENUS 1. LORIS. THE SLENDER LORIS. 



LORIS E. Geoff., Mag. Encyclop., 2me Annee, I, 1796, p. 48. Type 

 Loris gracilis E. Geoffroy, = Lemur tardigradus Linn. 

 Tardigradus Bodd., Elench. Anim., 1784, p. 67, (nee Brisson, 1762, 



Bradipodidae) . 

 Lori Laceped., Tabl. Mamm., 1799, p. 5. 

 Stenops Illig., Prodr. Syst. Mamm. et Avium, 1811, p. 73. 

 Loridium Rafin., Analyse de la Nature, 1840, p. 207. 



Fur soft, thick, woolly ; muzzle narrow, pointed ; eyes very large ; 

 ears small, tip naked; limbs long, slender; tail absent. Skull: orbits 

 approximate; braincase broadest anteriorly; palate extending beyond 

 last molar ; incisors small ; last lower molar with five cusps. 



The earliest genus proposed for this animal was Tardigradus 

 Boddaert, (1. c.) as shown by Messrs. Stone and Rehn, (1. c.) in their 

 review of the Genus. Unfortunately, however, the name had been 

 previously employed by Brisson in the BRADIPODIDAE, and therefore 

 was not available, and Loris proposed by Geoffroy, (1. c.) the next 

 in succession, became the term to be selected. 



The members of the family NYCTICIBID^E are small animals, 

 nocturnal in habits, slow in movement and covered with a soft, thick, 

 woolly fur. They are contained in four genera: Loris with two 

 species; Nycticebus with eleven species and subspecies; Arcto- 

 cebus with two and Perodicticus with four species. The eyes are 

 large and the ears erect; the limbs subequal; the tarsi short, and 

 the tail is either short, rudimentary or wanting altogether. The 

 third upper premolar is smaller than the first and possesses one large 

 external cusp, and the last upper molar varies in the number of its 

 cusps in the different genera, being quadricusped in Loris, tricusped 

 in Nycticebus and Arctocebus, and bicusped in Perodicticus. 



