Funambulus obscurus

The dusky striped squirrel (Funambulus obscurus) is a species of small squirrel from Sri Lanka that is largely confined to rainforests in the southwestern "wet zone" with higher rainfall than the rest of the island. It was formerly regarded as a subspecies of Funambulus sublineatus from India, at which point the English name of the "combined species" also was dusky striped squirrel. It is known as පුංචි ලේනා (punchi lena) or "batu lena" in the Sinhala language. == Taxonomy == The species was split off from Funambulus sublineatus, a similar Indian species in 2012. The Indian form (formerly subspecies F. s. sublineatus) is now referred to as the Nilgiri striped squirrel, whereas the Sri Lankan form (formerly F. s. obscurus) is now assigned the later designation Dusky striped squirrel. The species was reasonably separated from its Indian counterpart by Kathleen Ryley in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society in 1913, and this was reinforced by Oldfield Thomas who renamed the species Funambulus kathleenae in Ryley's honour given her choice of name of Funambulus trilineatus by Edward Frederick Kelaart was regarded as invalid. However, it was lumped back with the Indian form in 1918 given a resurgence in the…