A note on Bornean badgers (Mydaus). Records of the Raffles Museum, No. 26
This note by C. Boden Kloss addresses the taxonomic status of Bornean badgers (Mydaus), arguing that the name M. luciferoides Lönnerberg & Mjöberg is a gratuitous synonym of M. javanensis montanus Moulton and that all Bornean specimens should be referred to M. javanensis lucifer Thomas (p. 348).
Summary
Kloss reviews the nomenclatural history of Bornean badger specimens, beginning with Moulton’s 1921 description of M. javanensis montanus from North Sarawak, whose co-type is in the Raffles Museum, Singapore (p. 348). He notes that Lönnerberg and Mjöberg had dismissed montanus as a nomen nudum and erected M. luciferoides on material from the same Kalabit locality, but Kloss demonstrates that the nuchal whorl character on which they relied is variable and of no diagnostic value (p. 349). After examining photographs of additional specimens from the Sarawak Museum and the Leyden Museum, he concludes that only one form occurs on Borneo, best known as M. javanensis lucifer Thomas, and that the nape whorl is not a reliable distinguishing feature (p. 349). A footnote records that Kloss had not yet seen Oldfield Thomas’ subsequent contribution to the subject in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History (1927).