Many subspecies of the common palm civet have been described, but there is debate over the taxonomic status of them.
Many subspecies of the common palm civet have been described, notably the taxon lignicolor, endemic to the Mentawai islands. This has a debated taxonomic status, being sometimes considered a separate species or a subspecies of Paradoxurus hermaphroditus.
It has been proposed that P. hermaphroditus contains at least three species: P. hermaphroditus (sensu stricto) (South Asia, southern China and non-Sundaic South-east Asia), P. musanga (mainland South-east Asia, Sumatra, Java and other small Indonesian islands) and P. philippinensis (the Mentawai Islands, Borneo and the Philippines). It is suspected that in the region of overlap between P. hermaphroditus (sensu stricto) and P. musanga they would be found to be separated by altitude. The morphological distinctiveness of the Mentawai taxon was confirmed; although placed as a subspecies within P. musanga, it was cautioned that further investigation might find species rank more appropriate; genetic data do not, as so far looked at, support species status.
Sources: (Corbet & Hill, 1992; Duckworth, et al., 2011; Patou, et al., 2010; Schreiber, Wirth, Riffel, & Van Rompaey, 1989; Veron, Patou, Toth, Goonatilake, & Jennings, 2015; Wozencraft, 2005)
Image: Martin Lissmyr
