Prionailurus rubiginosus (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1831)

[Felis] rubiginosa I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1831, in: Belanger (ed.), Voy. Indes Orient., Mamm., 3 (Zoologie): 140.

Type Locality: "bois de lataniers qui couvrent une hauteur voisine de Pondichéry " [India, Pondicherry].

Vernacular Names: Rusty-Spotted Cat.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Prionailurus rubiginosus subsp. rubiginosus I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1831

Subspecies Prionailurus rubiginosus subsp. phillipsi Pocock 1939

Distribution: India, Sri Lanka (see Chakraborty, 1978).

Conservation: CITES – Appendix I (Indian population), otherwise Appendix II; IUCN – Vulnerable.

Discussion: Placed in Prionailurus by Pocock (1917 a), Weigel (1961), Hemmer (1978), Kratochvíl (1982 c), and Groves (1982 a). Herrington (1986), Salles (1992), Johnson and O'Brien (1997), and Mattern and McLennan (2000) all considered rubiginosus distant from other Prionailurus, although there is little agreement where it should be placed. See comments under genus.