COLUGO

also called Cobego, or Flying Lemur, any of the lemurlike gliding mammals, perhaps only two species, constituting the primitive order Dermoptera. They are found only in the East Indies and certain of the Philippine Islands. Colugos resemble large flying squirrels, being arboreal climbers and gliders with lateral skin membranes and large feet, webbed and clawed. The form of the head and the nocturnal habit, however, recall the lemurs, hence the colugos are sometimes called flying lemurs. The tail is short and connected by skin folds with the hind limbs, as in bats. Most peculiar are the teeth, 34 in number. The lower incisors stick out in a comblike structure formed of enamel folds; the second upper incisors are similar to canines and are double-rooted. Canines are absent in the upper jaw. Cheek teeth, premolars and molars, bear sharp cusps. The digestive tract exhibits features that are consonant with a strict vegetarian diet. Besides the Philippine species, Cynocephalus volans, a series of races of Cynocephalus (or Galeopterus) variegatus ranges from Myanmar (Burma) to the Malay Peninsula and from Sumatra to Borneo. Colugos were formerly considered a suborder of the Insectivora but differ from them and from other mammals in several basic anatomical features, especially in the form of the brain and in the dentition.