Vandeleuria oleracea (Bennett 1832)

[Vandeleuria] oleracea (Bennett 1832), Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1832: 121.

Type Locality: India, Madras, Deccan region.

Vernacular Names: Indomalayan Vandeleuria.

Synonyms: Vandeleuria badius (Blyth 1859); Vandeleuria domecolus (Hodgson 1841); Vandeleuria dumeticola (Hodgson 1845); Vandeleuria marica Thomas 1915; Vandeleuria modesta Thomas 1914; Vandeleuria povensis (Hodgson 1845); Vandeleuria rubida Thomas 1914; Vandeleuria sibylla Thomas 1914; Vandeleuria scandens Osgood 1932; Vandeleuria spadicea Ryley 1914; Vandeleuria wroughtoni Ryley 1914 .

Distribution: Recorded from Sri Lanka (lowlands; Phillips, 1980), peninsular India, S Nepal, Burma (Ellerman, 1941), SE China (W Yunnan; Wang, 2003), Thailand (except peninsula south of Isthmus of Kra, 10EE, 30’N; J. T. Marshall, Jr., 1977 a), SW Cambodia (Cardamom Mtns; A. Smith, in litt., 2002), and S Vietnam (Osgood, 1932; Dang et al., 1994); probably occurs in S Laos in suitable habitat. See Corbet and Hill (1992).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Musser and Carleton (1993) noted that " oleracea is possibly a composite of species, and despite Agrawal and Chakraborty’s (1980) review of geographic variation, needs careful systematic revision." Chromosomal features vary geographically: 2n = 26 or 28 for N, NE and E Thailand samples (Gropp et al., 1972; Winking et al., 1979); 2n = 29 for N India sample (Sharma and Raman, 1972), and 2n = 28 for SW India (Prakash and Aswathanarayana, 1973, 1976). Agrawal (2000) reviewed Indian populations, pointing out that samples from N India have rusty brown upperparts while those from S India and Gujarat have a dull brown dorsum; slight chromosomal differences are concordant with the chromatic distribution. Morphological variation in what has been defined as V. oleracea excludes nilagirica, which Corbet and Hill (1992) treat as a separate species (see that account). Ecology and distribution in the Aravalli Ranges in Rajasthan, India documented by Prakash et al. (1995 a, b) and in Gujarat State by Chakraborty and Agrawal (2000). Excellent description of climbing ability, diet, and other aspects for the Sri Lankan population provided by Phillips (1926, 1980). Chinese localities mapped and listed by Zhang et al. (1997), who also recorded a locality in N Sichuan far to the north of any other record, which is probably a misidentification. Although living populations occur in Thailand only north of the Isthmus of Kra (10E30’N), V. oleracea once ranged south into peninsular Thailand, and its evolutionary history in that country extends to late Pliocene (Chaimanee, 1998).