Hair morphology of Gray Slender Loris (Loris lydekkerianus) and Bengal Slow Loris (Nycticebus bengalensis)
Manokaran Kamalakannan
The present study was undertaken to know the hair morphology of two Indian lorises Gray Slender Loris Loris lydekkerianus and Bengal Slow Loris Nycticebus bengalensis. The laboratory study was conducted at the Mammal & Osteology section, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata during January – July 2016. Microscopic hair analysis of two lorises was done using an optical light microscope for its species identification. The hair of two lorises can easily be identified on basis of their ‘unicellular regular’ and ‘ladder’ structure of medulla and ‘oval or circular’ shape of the cross-section of hair. The high-resolution photo-micrographs and key characteristics of hair presented here can be used as an appropriate reference for species identification.