Petaurista

Updated on Oct 25, 2023

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Kingdom Animalia Subfamily Sciurinae Scientific name Petaurista Phylum Chordata		Family Sciuridae Tribe Pteromyini Rank Genus Order Rodent

Lower classifications Red giant flying squirrel, Red and white giant flying squ, Indian giant flying squirrel, Japanese giant flying squirrel, Spotted giant flying squirrel

Petaurista is a genus of rodent in the family Sciuridae. Squirrels in this family are generally large nocturnal flying squirrels.

It contains the following species, listed alphabetically:

Petaurista alborufus Milne-Edwards, 1870 – red and white giant flying squirrel

Petaurista elegans Müller, 1840 – spotted giant flying squirrel

Petaurista leucogenys Temminck, 1827 – Japanese giant flying squirrel

Petaurista magnificus Hodgson, 1836 – Hodgson's giant flying squirrel

Petaurista nobilis Gray, 1842 – Bhutan giant flying squirrel

Petaurista petaurista Pallas, 1766 – red giant flying squirrel

Petaurista philippensis Elliot, 1839 – Indian giant flying squirrel

Petaurista xanthotis Milne-Edwards, 1872 – Chinese giant flying squirrel

Two new species have been described in 2007 and 2009 from Arunachal Pradesh:

Mechuka giant flying squirrel (Petaurista mechukaensis). It has been assessed by IUCN (2016) as Data Deficient.

Mishmi Hills giant flying squirrel (Petaurista mishmiensis). It has been assessed by IUCN (2016) as Near Threatened.

Giant red flying squirrel petaurista petaurista

(Text) CC BY-SA