The brown-tailed mongoose was first described in 1837 by French zoologistIsidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire under the namesGalidia unicolor andGalidia olivacea. He placed both in thegenusGalidia, together with thering-tailed mongoose (Galidia elegans),[3] which is now recognized as the only species of that genus.[4] However, the nameunicolor had been a misprint forconcolor, and the name was corrected in an erratum and in a later note by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.[5] In 1865,[Note 1]John Edward Gray placedconcolor andolivacea in their ownsubgenus ofGalidia, which he calledSalanoia.[7] In 1882,St. George Jackson Mivart also separatedolivacea andconcolor fromGalidia, and placed them in a separate genusHemigalidia, without mentioningSalanoia.[8] In his 1904Index generum mammalium, Palmer noted thatSalanoia, the first name to be published, was the proper name for the genus.[9] AlthoughGlover Morrill Allen, in 1939, still listed two species, which he calledSalanoia olivacea andS. unicolor,[10] by 1972 R. Albignac recognized a single species only, which he calledSalanoia concolor.[11] A second species ofSalanoia,Salanoia durrelli, was described in 2010.[12]
Albignac, R. 1972. The Carnivora of Madagascar. Pp. 667–682 in Battistini, R. & Richard-Vindard, G. (eds.). Biogeography and Ecology in Madagascar. The Hague: W. Junk B.B., Publishers.
Allen, G.M. 1939. A checklist of African mammals. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 83:1–763.
Durbin, Joanna; Funk, Stephan M.; Hawkins, Frank; Hills, Daphne M.; Jenkins, Paulina D.; Moncrieff, Clive B.; Ralainasolo, Fidimalala Bruno (2010). "Investigations into the status of a new taxon ofSalanoia(Mammalia: Carnivora: Eupleridae) from the marshes of Lac Alaotra, Madagascar".Systematics and Biodiversity.8 (3):341–355.Bibcode:2010SyBio...8..341D.doi:10.1080/14772001003756751.S2CID84480153.
Wozencraft, W.C. 2005. Order Carnivora. Pp. 532–628 in Wilson, D.E. & Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference. 3rd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols., 2142 pp. ISBN978-0-8018-8221-0
