Thorington and Hoffman in Wilson and Reeder (2005) listed only two subspecies: "F. p. pennantii" and "F. p. argentescens". However, Ghose et al. (2004) described two additional subspecies: "F. p. chhattisgarhi" (distribution: eastern part of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar) and "F. p. gangutrianus" (distribution: West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal), but Talmale (2007) treated the Maharashtra populations as "F. p. pennantii" only due to the overlapping in measurements and colour variations observed in the specimens.