Gliding behaviour of Indian giant flying squirrel (Petaurista philippensis)

The Indian giant flying squirrel or large brown flying squirrel, Petaurista philippensis (Elliot, 1839) is one of 13 gliding squirrel species found in India. Nocturnal by nature, they have ability to glide up to 150 m. We studied its gliding habit in the human-modified landscape of the Kevdi ecotourism site (22.5198ºN, 73.9356ºE; Fig. 1), Panchmahal District, between two protected areas in Gujarat: Ratanmahal Sloth Bear Sanctuary and Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary. The Kevdi ecotourism site is a known locality of this species. Here, we present basic information on the gliding ecology of the species in the dry deciduous forests of central Gujarat.

The correct spelling of the nomen of the Yunnan giant flying squirrel Petaurista yunanensis Anderson, 1875 (Rodentia, Sciuridae)

Anderson (1875: 282) originally introduced the nomen Pteromys yunanensis for the Yunnan flying squirrel and later (Anderson 1879: 282) redescribed it as Pteromys yunnanensis, likely to fit with the alternative English spelling ‘Yunnan’ for the name of this Chinese province. Subsequently this species was transferred to the genus Petaurista Link, 1795 by Robinson & Kloss (1918: 173), which includes many recognized species and subspecies. Later on, it was considered a synonym of either Petaurista petaurista (Pallas, 1766) or Petaurista philippensis (Elliot, 1839) in subsequent taxonomic revisions (Ellerman & Morrison-Scott 1951; Corbet & Hill 1992; Thorington & Hoffmann 2006) until recent molecular phylogenetic analyses found it to be a separate species (Yu et al. 2006). More recent phylogenetic analyses have confirmed its species rank (e.g., Oshida et al. 2010; Casanovas-Vilar et al. 2018) and recent revisions have considered it a distinct species (Jackson 2012; Jackson & Thorington 2012; Koprowski et al. 2016).