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 partially and selectively bleached ebony langurs Trachypithecus auratus (É. 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 identification. 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 cytochrome 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 (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812). This case underscores the importance of assembling a sufficiently varied amount of data prior to describing new species and studying the actual type specimens.

Colobinae, Indonesia, new species, taxonomy, Trachypithecus

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 Marshall 2017). Occasionally, however, a new species is described where the researcher has not seen or observed the new species and all is based on photographs or other material that is present in the public domain. Descriptions of species by authors without first-hand knowledge of the type specimen(s) are explicitly discouraged by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Recommendation 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 illustrations 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 is questioned, there is no type specimen to refer back to.

In 2015, the description of new primate species, the golden-crowned langur Presbytis johnaspinalli Nardelli 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 Internet. One animal depicted in the photograph was selected 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 in already described species. Nijman (2015) provided more details on the circumstances 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 Centre 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 Nardelli as the basis for his description. Nijman (2015) also concluded that the animals in the photos were not Presbytis Eschscholtz, 1821 langurs, but partially-bleached Trachypithecus Horsfield, 1823 langurs, most likely ebony langurs Trachypithecus auratus (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812). Ebony langurs are endemic to the Indonesian islands 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. Nijman (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 suggestion that these animals were partially-bleached ebony langurs (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 partially-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 probably represents partially- and selectively-bleached individuals, 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, identified as a hybrid, synonymised). For the golden-crowned langur and three other species, their conclusion was ‘unresolved’. A similar conclusion was drawn by Pine and Gutiérrez (2018): “It is currently unresolved whether the name is based on artificially modified animals or individuals of a new or already known species and to what genus the animals belonged.” Rossi et al. (2018) briefly discussed the description of Presbytis johnaspinalli and the partially artificial bleaching, but did not draw a conclusion 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’ status (“Thus it should be substantiated by live specimen(s) to be found soon to check first of all if artificially colored and their DNA”).

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 Bahasa Indonesia are mine. In addition, I report on data I collected on ebony langurs during numerous visits to eastern Java in the period 1994 to 2018 (Nijman 2000, 2013, 2019). The information provided by Nardelli (2016), although not interpreted by him as such and research conducted since, also allows us to make a more firm conclusion 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 photographs that were posted on the Internet, that Nardelli had no first-hand experience in observing the animals and whether the International 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 golden-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 confiscated and how that provides us with additional information on the nature of the golden-crowed langur?

In discussing the description and the validity of golden-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 yellow-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 2010). However, the widespread knowledge that a related 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 golden-crowned langur was also a concocted species. Fortunately, 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 centre. 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 their release. Combining all this information does allow us to, retrospectively, make an assessment of the validity of the description of the golden-crowned langur as a distinct species.

Figure 1. 

Ebony langurs Trachypithecus auratus (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812). From left, clockwise: partially-bleached individual 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 (November 2014); a previously partially-bleached female Rus after her release back into the wild (November 2014); Bobby grooming Rus (December 2014).

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 photographs, but also observations of the behaviour and analysis of parts of the mtDNA of two of the animals depicted in the photographs. There is no evidence to support the notion that golden-crowned langurs represent 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 (É. 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 actual type specimens.

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 discussions and feedback. I appreciate the comments of two reviewers and the editor.