Chromosome polymorphism in the species of the GENUS Cercopithecus.

The chromosomes of the Anthropoid Apes, those of some species of Gibbons and those of many genera of the family Cercopithecidae have been described in the previous papers (Chiarelli 1962b, and c, 1963a). The chromosomes of all the species of the genus Cerco pithecus are dealt with in the present study. Data on the chromosomes of some of the species considered in this paper were already availabe in the literature (Chu and Giles 1957, Chu and Bender 1961, 1692 Chiarelli 1962a, 1963b). The genus Cercopithecus is particularly interesting because, as already remarked by Chu and Bender (1962) and by Chiarelli (1962a), it provides different numbers of chromo somes and marked differences in the karyotypes. The morphology of the chromosomes of this genus have been however only incompletely described in some species and a com parative study of them has so far only been outlined by Chu and Bender (1962), Bender and Chu (1963), and Chiarelli and Vaccarino (1963). The taxonomy of quite a few species of the genus is still a matter of controversy (Tappen 1960) and therefore karyological analyses may serve as useful tools for the tax onomy of this group. Erythrocebus patas is considered in this paper as a species of the genus Cercopithecus in accordance with the taxonomic revision proposed by Verheyen (1962), so that the genus Cercopithecus, includes 13 species with many geographic and ecological subspecies (see Buettner-Janusch 1963).