Asiatic striped squirrel

Asiatic striped squirrel; Temporal range: Late Pliocene to recent
	Himalayan striped squirrel (Tamiops mcclellandii)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Sciuridae
Subfamily:	Callosciurinae
Genus:	Tamiops; J. A. Allen, 1906
Type species
	Tamiops macclellandi hainanus;
Species
	Tamiops maritimus; Tamiops mcclellandii; Tamiops minshanica ; Tamiops rodolphii; Tamiops swinhoei

Asiatic striped squirrels are a genus (Tamiops) of squirrels (Sciuridae) in the subfamily Callosciurinae. They are small striped arboreal squirrels from Asia. Their head to body length measured from 10 to 13 cm. They often are confused with other squirrels (e.f. Funambulus or Tamias). In contrast to these other squirrels, they have smaller rounded ears with white-tipped hairs. A black longitudinal stripe is present in the middle of the back, which is parallel on both sides with two pairs of pale longitudinal stripes. These pale stripes are separated by dark brownish stripes.^[2] In some countries, they are kept as pets.

The four traditionally recognized species of Asiatic striped squirrels are:

Himalayan striped squirrel, T. mcclellandii
Maritime striped squirrel, T. maritimus
Cambodian striped squirrel, T. rodolphii
Swinhoe's striped squirrel, T. swinhoei

A fifth species was described in 2022:^[3]

Minshan striped squirrel, T. minshanica

Asiatic striped squirrels can be identified by the differences in the stripe pattern. For example, in some species, the stripe of the cheek interrupts in the shoulder region and does not continue to the outermost pale stripe.^[2]

Drawings of differences in Asiatic striped squirrel species - close-up of the head region in lateral view

References

^ Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
^ ^a ^b Thorington, R. W. Jr., Koprowski, J. L., Steele, M. A. and J. F. Whatton. 2012. Squirrels of the World. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
^ Liu, Shaoying; Tang, Mingkun; Murphy, Robert W.; Liu, Yinxun; Wang, Xuming; Wan, Tao; Liao, Rui; Tang, Keyi; Qing, Jiao; Chen, Shunde; Li, Song (2022-03-21). "A new species of Tamiops (Rodentia, Sciuridae) from Sichuan, China". Zootaxa. 5116 (3): 301–333. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5116.3.1. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 35391332.