A craniometric comparison of the African and Asian mongooses in the genus Herpestes (Carnivora : Herpestidae)

Mongooses of the genus Herpestes (sensu Wozencraft 1989) from Africa and As ia were examined to determine whether they showed any "distinct" sub-generi c or generic groupings which might support the use of the sub-genera or gen era Galerella, Herpestes and Urva based on craniometric measurements. The s tudy involved an examination of skulls in several major collections in Nort h America, Europe and Africa. These mongooses are sexually dimorphic with m ales larger than females. Skulls were measured to the nearest 0.1 mm and th e comparisons made using principal component and cluster analyses. Based on these analyses, there does not appear to be any distinct craniometric diff erence between the mongooses in the subgenus Galerella from those in the su bgenus Herpestes. The species H. javanicus (sensu Wozencraft 1993) consists of two distinct species H. javanicus and H. auropunctatus which cluster wi th the other small mongooses. The majority (97 per cent) of variation betwe en species in the PCA is explained by size, with only 2 percent contributed by shape.