New langur species discovered?

Lemurs said:
A new type of langur is big news!

Bird market photo yields an unknown monkey species in Indonesia
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when you first posted this link I thought "wow, that is big news!" but I also thought it was very strange that such a distinctive langur would have remained unknown in Indonesia until suddenly popping up now. I was going to do some reading on the news, but then forgot about it until today.

The article has since been updated with new information strongly suggesting that the individuals at the market have been dyed or bleached to increase their price. And I agree with that assessment.

e.g.

Correction: The original version of this story stated that the photos were taken in Jakarta’s bird market. It was revealed on 10/23 that the photos were taken in Ngawi in 2009.
Author’s note (10/23/15 05:10 Pacific Daylight Time): One primatologist reached by Mongabay after this story was posted cautioned that the “new” primate could have been bleached to increase its market value. Traders in some markets have been known to adulterate the coloration of animals, including primates, to make them seem more exotic. We’ll provide updates as more information becomes available.

(10/23/15 13:00 Pacific Daylight Time) – Vincent Nijman, a primatologist at Oxford Brookes University, sent the following response to Mongabay. Nijman worked on Presbytis and Trachypithecus monkeys for over two decades, both in the field and in museums. Over this period, Nijman has been doing research in the wildlife markets of Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia.

1. All the photos can be traced down to the same location, the same time, and quite possibly, the same trader. That is, the first photographs were taken in Ratu Soerja market in Matingan, east Java (on the border with central Java) in the summer of 2009, and on 6 November, the same year, they were confiscated there. I found some more photos in addition to the ones in the paper, but these also can be traced back to the same location. Despite what you wrote in your article (not sure what the source was) none of them have been photographed in Jakarta bird markets or anywhere else.

2. I am almost certain now that it is not a Presbytis but a Trachypithecus, most likely, the ebony langur T. auratus from Java. Interestingly, Nardelli noted that that the individuals lacked the “characteristic cone or crest shaped hair on the head” as seen in other Presbytis species. I agree and note that this hairdo is typical for ebony langurs.

3. I have seen these dyed (or bleached, I am not sure) langurs before, both in the markets in east Java and in rescue centers in east Java in the early 2000s. This dyeing I have seen in Trachypithecus langurs, some Presbytis langurs and slow lorises (making it difficult to identify what species we are actually dealing with) as well as other wild-caught mammals (eg civets). Birds and domesticated animals can also be dyed but here it is often the whole animal that changes color. It is done to increase the ‘novelty factor’ and, ultimately, the price.

(10/23/15 14:00 Pacific Daylight Time) – Nardelli’s response.

1. The crown’s hair is pointing straight up. In Trachypithecus the same is mostly directed forward.

2. In over ten years of work in Indonesia I never came across artificially colored mammals. To consider is the face, ears and hands skin color is uniformly black or blackish on all different age individuals. In one individual a V shaped, light grey hair pattern is visible on dorsum. I would exclude Presbytis comata fredericae for its rarity.

(10/23/15 23:00 Pacific Daylight Time) – Borneo Future Director Erik Meijaard

It really is quite remarkable. Indonesia is so good at faking, they even fake new species. If they can do about 100 fakes a year, the extinction crisis would soon be over. I am sorry for Dr Nardelli, but it seems very likely that he and his colleagues got things wrong. Think about it, what are really the chances that 200 years of zoology had overlooked a very distinctive looking new primate species. We are not talking a new rat, like the recently discovered Sulawesi hog-nosed shrew rat, or obscure bird, but a leaf monkey, which, considering the distribution of leaf monkeys, could only derive from the most densely settled parts of Indonesia. So, having seen a great number of dyed or bleached animals in Indonesian animal markets before, I think Dr Nijman has probably got things right and unfortunately we are not looking at a new species.
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Just an additional note. The reference for the Mongabay article is the International Zoo News, but the relevant volume is not yet available online. (Francesco Nardelli. A new Colobinae from the Sundiac region: The Golden-crowned Langur Presbytis johnaspinalli, sp. nov.. International Zoo News Vol. 62. No. 5 (2015), pp. 323-336)
 
Re. the 'new' langur -
On reading the full article in International Zoo News, I emailed the author (Francesco Nardelli) with 2 comments:
1) he had actually made no real argument for placing the species in the genus Presbytis. The photographed individuals looked more like Trachypithecus.
2) he had not considered the possibility of the Indonesian animal traders using dyes to create interesting-looking specimens that would fetch a higher price.

I was surprised to learn, in Mr. Nardelli's reply to me, that "In over ten years of work in Indonesia I never came across artificially coloured mammals so the idea did not crossed [sic] my mind".
In fact, the use of dyes on mammals in Indonesian markets is reasonably well documented.
 
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If they are faked it has been very cleverly done, with all the individuals visible, presenting a similar uniform appearance(i.e. the extent of the 'golden' areas framing the face and on the underside). I would think bleaching done with care could possibly give this result better than dyeing?
 
When this news broke, although the possibility these individuals had been bleached did occur to me, the main issue I had with it was the fact these individuals looked nothing like Presbytis and everything like Trachypithecus :p
 
TeaLovingDave said:
...the main issue I had with it was the fact these individuals looked nothing like Presbytis and everything like Trachypithecus
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Indeed. Nor does Nardelli provide a rationale for his placement of the 'new species' in Presbytis.
Certainly it's not impossible that there are undiscovered monkey taxa in Indonesia (for example, Presbytis bicolor was not described until 1992). But the evidence gathered by Nardelli doesn't meet the rigorous standards that should be met before announcing and naming a new species.
 
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