Zoosyst. Evol. 97 (1) 2021, 141-145 | DOI 10.3897/zse.97.62235

eee
BERLIN

No longer based on photographs alone: refuting the validity of
golden-crowned langur Presbytis johnaspinalli Nardelli 2015
(Mammalia, Primates, Cercopithecidae)

Vincent Nijman?

1 Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group, School of Social Sciences and Centre for Functional Genomics, Department of Biological and Medical
Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 OBP, UK

http://zoobank.org/2C3A 7C8&2-A9BE-4FD1-A21D-113EC28C0224

Corresponding author: Vincent Nijman (vnijman@brookes.ac.uk)

Academic editor: M.T.R. Hawkins # Received 18 December 2020 # Accepted 19 January 2021 Published 11 February 2021

Abstract

Increasingly, new species are being described without there being a name-bearing type specimen. In 2015, a new species of primate
was described, the golden-crowned langur Presbytis johnaspinalli Nardelli, 2015 on the basis of five photographs that were posted
on the Internet in 2009. After publication, the validity of the species was questioned as it was suggested that the animals were par-
tially and selectively bleached ebony langurs Trachypithecus auratus (E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812). Since the whereabouts of the
animals were unknown, it was difficult to see how this matter could be resolved and the current taxonomic status of P. johnaspinalli
remains unclear. I present new information about the fate of the individual animals in the photographs and their species identifica-
tion. In 2009, thirteen of the langurs on which Nardelli based his description were brought to a rescue centre where, after about three
months, they regained their normal black colouration confirming the bleaching hypothesis. Eight of the langurs were released in a
forest and two were monitored for two months in 2014. The description of their behaviour, photographs and analysis of their cyto-
chrome b genes confirms them as ebony langurs. There is no evidence to support the notion that the golden-crowned langur represents
intermediates between melanistic and erythristic ebony langurs, nor that it represents a new species. As such, Presbytis johnaspinalli
Nardelli, 2015 is a junior synonym of Trachyptihecus auratus (E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812). This case underscores the impor-
tance of assembling a sufficiently varied amount of data prior to describing new species and studying the actual type specimens.

Key Words

Colobinae, Indonesia, new species, taxonomy, Trachypithecus

Introduction species by authors without first-hand knowledge of the

type specimen(s) are explicitly discouraged by the Inter-

Increasingly, new species are being described without
there being a name-bearing type specimen; photographs,
videos, DNA analysis and analysis of vocalisations can
all be valid datasets to base the description of species on
(e.g. Dubois and Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008; Robb
et al. 2013; Marshall and Evenhuis 2015; Krell and Mar-
shall 2017). Occasionally, however, a new species is de-
scribed where the researcher has not seen or observed the
new species and all is based on photographs or other ma-
terial that is present in the public domain. Descriptions of

national Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Recommen-
dation 73b: “An author should designate as holotype a
specimen actually studied by him or her, not a specimen
known to the author only from descriptions or illustra-
tions in the literature”, ICZN 1999). The main difficulty
with relying on photographs, descriptions or illustrations
only is that, when the validity of the new species 1s ques-
tioned, there is no type specimen to refer back to.

In 2015, the description of new primate species, the
golden-crowned langur Presbytis johnaspinalli Nardel-

Copyright Vincent Nijman. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

142

li 2015, was published in the “International Zoo News”
(Nardelli 2015). The description was based solely on the
basis of five photographs that had been posted on the In-
ternet. One animal depicted in the photograph was select-
ed as the holotype and ten others as syntypes (all should
have been selected as syntypes or one individual should
have been the holotype and the other individuals paratypes
if the langurs were individually recognisable, which they
were not). The golden-crowned langur is largely black
with yellowish hair around the face, on the top of the head
and vent, a pattern not seen 1n already described species.
Nyman (2015) provided more details on the circumstanc-
es in which these and related photographs were taken and
how they ended up in the public domain. The animals in
the photographs all linked back to a single trader in an
animal market in the town of Mantingan, Ngawi Regency,
in the Province of East Java, Indonesia [-7.37, 111.16].
There, on 6 November 2009, 15 langurs were confiscated.
They were brought to the East Javan Nature Conservation
Agency (BKSDA) offices in Surabaya and, from there,
they were transferred to the Petung Sewu Rescue Cen-
tre also in East Java. These events were publicised in the
Indonesian media and by Indonesian welfare NGOs and
some of these reports were accompanied by photographs
of langurs in cages; five of these were selected by Nardel-
li as the basis for his description. Niyman (2015) also con-
cluded that the animals in the photos were not Presbytis
Eschscholtz, 1821 langurs, but partially-bleached Trachy-
pithecus Horsfield, 1823 langurs, most likely ebony lan-
gurs Trachypithecus auratus (E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire,
1812). Ebony langurs are endemic to the Indonesian 1s-
lands of Java, Bali and Lombok and come in two morphs,
a more common melanistic one (hence the English name)
and a rarer and geographically-restricted erythristic one.
Nyman (2015) postulated that the golden-crowned langur
represented melanistic ebony langurs that had their chests
and hairs surrounding the face bleached so they became
bicoloured. Nardelli (2016) gave a rebuttal to the sugges-
tion that these animals were partially-bleached ebony lan-
gurs (a practice he questioned) and provided some more
details on a 2016 visit to the Mantingan animal market
(no langurs were observed). He also included a transcript
of an interview with I Kurniawan, an animal keeper of the
Petung Sewu Rescue Centre, who took care of the par-
tially-bleached langurs after their seizure and up to their
release in the forest.

The discovery and description of the golden-crowned
langur as a new species and the suggestion that it prob-
ably represents partially- and selectively-bleached indi-
viduals, was discussed widely on blogs, forums, news
sites, but also in the broader scientific literature. Krell and
Marshall (2017) considered 66 cases of new species that
were described without name-bearing whole-body type
specimens at the time of description and presented their
views on these species’ current status (e.g. valid, identi-
fied as a hybrid, synonymised). For the golden-crowned
langur and three other species, their conclusion was ‘un-
resolved’. A similar conclusion was drawn by Pine and
Gutiérrez (2018): “It is currently unresolved whether the

zse.pensoft.net

Nijman, V.: Validity of golden-crowned langur

name 1s based on artificially modified animals or individ-
uals of a new or already known species and to what genus
the animals belonged.” Rossi et al. (2018) briefly dis-
cussed the description of Presbytis johnaspinalli and the
partially artificial bleaching, but did not draw a conclu-
sion on their status, noting that the issue deserves further
enquiries. F. Nardelli, commenting on a blog post (Butler
2015), suggested that the only way to settle the matter
was to examine the animals themselves and/or to then
analyse their DNA to refute or confirm their species’ sta-
tus (“Thus it should be substantiated by live specimen(s)
to be found soon to check first of all if artificially colored
and their DNA”).

Methods

I reviewed the available literature, including comments
made on blogpost where appropriate and I obtained some
additional information through email correspondence
with Drs F. Nardelli, D. Brandon-Jones, E. Meijaard, G.
Sangster and the late C. Groves. All translations from Ba-
hasa Indonesia are mine. In addition, I report on data I
collected on ebony langurs during numerous visits to east-
ern Java in the period 1994 to 2018 (Nijyman 2000, 2013,
2019). The information provided by Nardelli (2016), al-
though not interpreted by him as such and research con-
ducted since, also allows us to make a more firm con-
clusion about the nature of the golden-crowned langur.
While some of the debate about Presbytis johnaspinalli
centred on the fact that the description was based on pho-
tographs that were posted on the Internet, that Nardelli
had no first-hand experience in observing the animals and
whether the /nternational Zoo News was an appropriate
medium to publish a description of new species, I here
focus only on the validity of the golden-crowned langur
as a species. I address three specific points.

1. The occurrence of the erythristic form of the ebony
langur and its relevance to interpreting the gold-
en-crowned langur.

2. The occurrence and the prevalence of bleaching
langurs in animal markets in Java and its possible
function.

3. What happened to the langurs after they were confis-
cated and how that provides us with additional infor-
mation on the nature of the golden-crowed langur?

Results

Are golden-crowned langurs intermediates
between the two colour morphs?

D. Brandon-Jones (in Dasgupta 2015) stated that there is
a fairly large area in southeast Java where the ebony lan-
gur population may be entirely of the erythristic morph.
He went on to say that there are museum specimens that
are not entirely orange and it is very likely that such spec-

Zoosyst. Evol. 97 (1) 2021, 141-145

imens occur on the boundary of the area where most, if
not all, langurs are orange. As such, Brandon-Jones con-
sidered golden-crowned langurs merely as intermediates
between the melanistic and erythristic morph of the ebony
langur. Nardelli (2016) stressed that, in the Manang area,
the erythristic morph 1s present. Assuming that Manang is
a typo for Mantingan, the town where the animal market
is situated, this may give the impression that the gold-
en-crowned langurs are somehow linked to the presence
of the erythristic morph of the ebony langur in the area.

The occurrence of the erythristic morph has been
well documented, both through study of museum spec-
imens and field surveys (Brandon-Jones 1995; Nijman
2000). They are found in the 11 easternmost Regencies
of East Java (out of 29 Regencies), but not on Bali or
Lombok. Contra to Brandon-Jones’s statement, there are
no populations (or to my knowledge even groups) where
all the individuals are of the erythristic morph. Out of
~180 ebony langur groups, I have observed in this region
over the last 25 years, about 15% contain one or more
erythristic individuals. The highest number of erythris-
tic individuals in a population was on Mt. Penanggun-
gan [-7.61, 112.62] in the mid 1990s (~15—20%) and the
western flank of Mts. Ijen [-8.06, 114.24] in the early
2000s (~20%). Van Bemmel-Lenneman and van Bemmel
(1940) reported that, in the 1930s in the higher parts of
Mt. Semeru [-8.11, 112.92], the erythristic morph was
more common than the melanistic one (I have not vis-
ited this area). In the absence of populations or regions
where all ebony langurs are of the erythristic morph, the
suggestion of golden-crowned langurs are intermediates
between the melanistic and erythristic morph is moot (as
then we would expect to see intermediates within groups
as well, which we do not). Nardelli (2016) is incorrect
to state that the erythristic form occurs in Mantingan (or
nearby Mt. Lawu [-7.63, 111.19]). The closest area from
Mantingan where the erythristic form is found is on Mt.
Kelud [-7.94, 112.31] and Mt. Arjuna-Welirang [-7.73,
112.59], both ~130 km to the east (Brandon-Jones 1995;
Niman 2000).

Does bleaching of langurs occur regularly and
what is its purpose?

Nardelli (2016) asked the question who would possibly
bleach more than ten langurs at a time, something he con-
sidered a complex, risky, ingenious and time-consuming
task, to sell them for a mere US$20 each at a local ani-
mal market? The short answer is a 40 years old trader of
wild birds and mammals in the Mantingan animal market
by the name of M. Sabar and/or his co-workers, as re-
ported in the Indonesian media (Pudji 2009). I. Kurni-
awan (in Nardelli 2016) recounted several instances in
2003 and 2009 when the Petung Sewu Rescue Centre
received a total of 41 partially-bleached ebony langurs
that were confiscated in Mantingan (I observed several
of these langurs in the Petung Sewu Rescue Centre in
September 2003). In addition, the Indonesian NGO Pro-

143

Fauna photographed one partially-bleached ebony lan-
gur in Mantingan between May and July 2009 (ProFauna
2009), suggesting the practice of bleaching 1s, or was, not
uncommon. With reference to this, they state that “Es-
pecially for Javan [= ebony] langur, when the primate
is still a baby, its fur is attractively orange, but when it
grows older, its fur gets darker and turns to black. To de-
ceive the customers, some animal traders dye a juvenile
or adult langurs’ fur orange. The traders also add that
those dyed langurs are endangered and originally from
Kalimantan [= Indonesian Borneo] hoping that they get
more money” (ProFauna (2009: page 25).

To answer the second part of Nardelli’s question, one
has to consider not the absolute price of the langur, but
the added value that selective bleaching brings, both in
terms of raising the asking price and in terms of attract-
ing customers and increasing the ease of selling. To put
US$20 (in 2009) in context, we can compare it to the
minimum monthly wage. This is set annually by the In-
donesian government for each Regency. For the Regency
in which Mantingan is situated for the year 2009, the min-
imum monthly wage was US$69; with 15 langurs pres-
ent at the time the seizures took place, even if bleaching
raises the price by a mere US$5, the additional income
exceeds the monthly minimum wage at virtually zero ad-
ditional monetary costs.

What happened to the golden-crowned langurs
that were confiscated?

I. Kurniawan (in Nardelli 2016) described in detail what
happened to the individual langurs that formed the ba-
sis of the description of the golden-crowned langurs.
For 2009, he recalled there was a seizure of 13 langurs
that were coloured or bleached at the Mantingan animal
market. According to Kurniawan, it took less than three
months for the bleached area to grow out and to be re-
placed by its original black colour; younger individuals
changed back to normal faster than adult ones. Two of
these langurs, a male and a female now named Bobby
and Rus, had their parts of their cytochrome b gene se-
quenced by two different research teams, who compared
their haplotypes to those reported by Roos et al. (2008).
Roos et al. (2008) sequenced 573 base pairs (bp) from 50
ebony langurs and found 19 haplotypes, labelling them
aaA (7) auratus auratus A), aaB etc. For Bobby, 503
bp were sequenced confirming him to be an ebony lan-
gur with haplotype aaC (Rahmawati 2013; Rahmawati
et al. 2015). For Rus, at least 468 bp were successfully
sequenced and it showed a one base-pair difference to
haplotypes aaB, aaG and aaJ (Mushlih et al. 2011), con-
firming her also to be an ebony langur.

Only eight of the original 13 langurs survived and
these were released in 2013 and 2014 on Mt. Biru [-7.76,
112.49], close to the Rescue Centre, in at least two dif-
ferent groups. Bobby and Rus were released as part of a
group of four (the other two females being a melanistic
and an erythristic ebony langur imported from the UK)

zse.pensoft.net

144

and this group was subsequently monitored in November
and December 2014 by Qomariah (2015) (Fig. 1). Qom-
ariah (2015) reconfirms that both Bobby and Rus were
confiscated in Ngawi in November 2009 and photographs
of both langurs included in her dissertation show that
they are unequivocally ebony langurs of the melanistic
morph. In terms of activity budgets (44.2 + 7.8% feeding,
43.6 + 7.9% resting, 9.8 + 3.7% moving, 2.5 + 2.5% so-
cial), Bobby’s calling (described as “ek ok, ek ok”) and
diet (leaves: 30 species, fruit: five species), the group
very much behaves in line with what has been observed
in other ebony langurs (summarised in Nijman, in press).
It is also worth noting that the diet and the call as reported
by Qomariah (2015) is distinctly different from Presbytis
langurs (these are more frugivorous and male calls are
best described as exhalation notes consisting of tchiks, in
some species preceded by purr notes).

Nijman, V.: Validity of golden-crowned langur

2010). However, the widespread knowledge that a relat-
ed parrot species, the spectacled parrotlet F’ conspicillatu
(Lafresnaye, 1848), when in trade, is frequently dyed
to increase their price and novelty value quickly led to
the acceptance that the yellow-necked parrotlet was, in
fact, not a new species (Notton 2011; Krell et al. 2017).
Perhaps the unfamiliarity with the widespread bleaching
and dying of mammals in animal markets in Asia led
to a hesitance in accepting the possibility that the gold-
en-crowned langur was also a concocted species. Fortu-
nately, in this case, primates are often treated differently
from other mammals, birds or reptiles and the individuals
depicted in the photographs ended up in a rescue cen-
tre. There, they were taken care of by dedicated keepers
who kept track of their histories, they were given names
allowing them to be traced, their genetics were studied
and their behaviour and well-being were monitored after

+

Figure 1. Ebony langurs Trachypithecus auratus (E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812). From left, clockwise: partially-bleached indi-
vidual in the office of the East Javan Nature Conservation Agency in Surabaya (November 2009); partially-bleached individual in
the Matingan animal market (May-July 2009); a previously partially-bleached male Bobby after his release back into the wild (No-
vember 2014); a previously partially-bleached female Rus after her release back into the wild (November 2014); Bobby grooming

Rus (December 2014).

Discussion

In discussing the description and the validity of gold-
en-crowned langur, attention was invariably drawn to the
fact that it was based on photographs taken at an animal
market by people other than the author of the species
and that they were subsequently posted on the Internet,
as well as whether or not the langurs in the photographs
were indeed bleached or dyed (Butler 2015; Krell et al
2017; Pine and Gutiérrez 2018; Rossi et al. 2018). More
than once, parallels were drawn to the case of the yel-
low-necked parrotlet Forpus flavicollis Bertagnolio &
Racheli 2010; this species was also described on the basis
of a photograph of animals in trade (when the birds were
in a rescue centre in Colombia, Bertagnolio and Racheli

zse.pensoft.net

their release. Combining all this information does allow
us to, retrospectively, make an assessment of the validi-
ty of the description of the golden-crowned langur as a
distinct species.

Conclusion

On the basis of the above, I conclude that the langurs that
formed the basis of the description of the golden-crowned
langur were indeed ebony langurs that were partially
bleached. This is no longer supported only by photo-
graphs, but also observations of the behaviour and analy-
sis of parts of the mtDNA of two of the animals depicted
in the photographs. There is no evidence to support the

Zoosyst. Evol. 97 (1) 2021, 141-145

notion that golden-crowned langurs represent interme-
diates between melanistic and erythristic ebony langurs,
nor that it represents a new species. As such, Presbytis
Johnaspinalli Nardelli 2015 is a junior synonym of Tra-
chyptihecus auratus (E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812).
This case of the golden-crowned langur underscores the
importance of assembling a sufficiently varied amount of
data prior to describing new species and studying the ac-
tual type specimens.

Acknowledgements

I thank the Indonesian Institute of Sciences for supporting
my field research in the 1990s and 2000s and Francesco
Nardelli, Erik Meijaard, Doug Brandon-Jones, George
Sangster, Colin Groves and my students of ANTH7001
Primate Diversity and Conservation for helpful discus-
sions and feedback. I appreciate the comments of two re-
viewers and the editor.

References

Bertagnolio P, Racheli L (2010) A new parrotlet from Colombia, Forpus
flavicollis. Avicultural Magazine 116: 128-132.

Brandon-Jones D (1995) A revision of the Asian pied leaf-monkeys (Mam-
malia: Cercopithecidae, superspecies Semnopithecus auratus), with a
description of a new subspecies. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 43: 3-43.

Butler RA (2015) Bird market photo yields an unknown monkey species
in Indonesia. Mongabay. [23 October 2015]

Dasgupta S (2015) ‘New’ monkey species or an ‘artificially colored’ mon-
key? Scientists debate status of ‘unknown’ langur species discovered
in Indonesian bird market photo. Mongabay. [21 December 2015]

Donegan TM (2008) New species and subspecies descriptions do not
and should not always require a dead type specimen. Zootaxa 1761:
37-48. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1761.1.4

Dubois A, Nemésio A (2007) Does nomenclatural availability of nomi-
na of new species or subspecies require the deposition of vouchers
in collections? Zootaxa 1409: 1-22.

ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature) (1999)
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Fourth Edition. The
International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London.

Krell FT, Marshall SA, Miko I (2017) New species described from pho-
tographs: yes? no? sometimes? a fierce debate and a new declaration
of the ICZN. Insect Systematics and Diversity 1: 3-19. https://do1.
org/10.1093/isd/ixx004

Marshall SA, Evenhuis NL (2015) New species without dead bodies: a
case for photo-based descriptions, illustrated by a striking new spe-
cies of Marleyimyia Hesse (Diptera, Bombyliidae) from South Africa.
ZooKeys 525: 117-127. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.525.6143

Mushlih M, Listyorini M, Gofur A (2011) The identification of species
and relationship of Javan langur (7rachypithecus auratus) in Javan
Langur Rehabilitation Center (JLC) based on cytochrome b gene
sequence. Proceeding of an International Conference on Biological
Science Faculty of Biology Universitas Gadjah Mada 2011: 55-62.

Nardelli F (2015) A new Colobinae from the Sundiac region: the gold-
en-crowned langur Presbytis johnaspinalli, sp. nov. International
Zoo News 62: 323-336.

145

Nardelli F (2016) A new Colobinae from the Sundiac region: the
golden-crowned langur Presbytis johnaspinalli, sp. nov. Updated
report. International Zoo News 63: 2-3.

Nijyman V (2000) Geographic distribution of ebony leaf monkey 7ra-
chypithecus auratus. Contributions to Zoology 69: 157-177. https://
doi.org/10.1163/18759866-06903002

Niyman V (2013) Distribution and ecology of the most tropical of the
high-elevation montane colobines: the ebony langur on Java. In
Gursky-Doyen S (Ed.) High Altitude Primates. Springer, New York,
115-132.

Niman V (2015) Newly described golden-crowned langurs Presbytis
Johnaspinalli are most likely partially bleached ebony langurs 7ra-
chypithecus auratus. International Zoo News 62: 403-406. https://
doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8175-1_7

Niyman V (2019) Ebony langurs in mangrove and beach forests of
Java, Bali and Lombok. In: Nowak K, Barnett AA, Matsuda I
(Eds) Primates in Flooded Habitats: Ecology and Conservation.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 99-104. https://doi.
org/10.1017/9781316466780.015

Nijman V (in press) Ecology of sympatric and allopatric Presbytis and
Trachypithecus \angurs in Sundaland. In: Matsuda I, Grueter CC,
Teichroeb JE (Eds) The Colobines: Natural History, Behaviour and
Ecological Diversity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Notton DG (2011) The availability and validity of the name Forpus fla-
vicollis Bertagnolio & Racheli, 2010, for a parrotlet from Colombia.
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 131: 221-224.

Pine RH, Gutiérrez EE (2018) What is an ‘extant’ type specimen?
Problems arising from naming mammalian species-group taxa
without preserved types. Mammal Review 48: 12-23. https://doi.
org/10.1111/mam.12108

ProFauna (2009) Wildlife trade survey on the bird markets in Java. Pro-
Fauna, Malang, Indonesia.

Pudji (2009) Penjual lutung jawa ditangkap. Surabaya Pagi. [7 Novem-
ber 2009]

Qomariah IN (2015) Perilaku harian lutung jawa (7rachypithecus
auratus Geoffroy 1812) pasca rehabilitasi dan pelepasliaran di
Gunung Biru, Batu, Jawa Timur. BSc thesis, Universitas Sebelas
Maret, Surakarta.

Rahmawati, RR (2013) Identifikasi lutung jawa (7rachypithecus au-
ratus) di Javan Langur Center (JLC) Coban Talun, Batu berdasar-
kan sekuen cytochrome-b. BSc thesis, Universitas Negeri Malang,
Indonesia.

Rahmawati RR, Kusumawati E, Aninda LP, Mushlih M, Gofur A,
Listyorini D (2015) Identification of Javan langur (7rachypithecus
auratus) in Javan Langur Center (JLC) Coban Talun, Batu based on
cytochrome-b sequence. KnELife Sciences 2: 274-277. https://doi.
org/10.18502/kls.v211.157

Robb MS, van den Berg AB, Constantine M (2013) A new species of
Strix owl from Oman. Dutch Birding 35: 275-310.

Roos C, Nadler T, Walter L (2008) Mitochondrial phylogeny, taxonomy
and biogeography of the silvered langur species group (7rachypithe-
cus cristatus). Molecular Phylogenetics Evolution 47: 629-636.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2008.03.006

Rossi L, Gippoliti S, Angelici FM (2018) The role of indirect evidence
and traditional ecological knowledge in the discovery and description
of new ape and monkey species since 1980. Primates 59: 327-337.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-018-0667-6

Van Bemmel-Lenneman N, van Bemmel ACV (1940) De vogels van het
Tenggergebergte. De Tropische Natuur 29: 93-101.

zse.pensoft.net