Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 5. Rodents
Author
Voss, Robert S.
Author
Fleck, David W.
Author
Jansa, Sharon A.
text
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
2019
2024-04-18
2024
466
1
180
http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5414895
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.5414895
0003-0090
Coendou ichillus
Voss and da Silva, 2001
Figure 46
VOUCHER MATERIAL: None.
UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: El Chino (
Carter, 2023
).
IDENTIFICATION: Originally described from eastern Ecuadorean material,
Coendou ichillus
has subsequently been reported from scattered sites throughout western Amazonia (e.g.,
Gregory et al., 2015
;
Ramírez-Chaves et al., 2016
,
2020
;
Menezes et al., 2020
). This taxon is easily distinguished in the field from its broadly sympatric congener
C. longicaudatus
(formerly
C. prehensilis
; see below) by its much smaller adult size and by several conspicuous external traits (table 33). Should skeletal material eventually be collected in our region, cranial comparisons are equally diagnostic. Among other qualitative differences,
C. ichillus
has a dorsally flattened skull (
Voss and da Silva, 2001
: figs. 10, 11), whereas
C. longicaudatus
has a conspicuously convex dorsal cranial profile due to its hugely inflated frontal sinuses (fig. 47). Additionally, cranial measurements of
C. ichillus
do not overlap those of
C. longicaudatus
: condyloincisive length, for example, is
59–64 mm
in the former species versus
78–97 mm
in the latter, and crown length of the maxillary toothrow is
14–15 mm
versus
19–22 mm
(
Voss and da Silva, 2001
; Voss, 2010). Weight data is unavailable for this species.
ETHNOBIOLOGY: Although a few Matses hunters have reported seeing a small porcupine that might correspond to this species, they do not recognize it as a distinct species.
MATSES NATURAL HISTORY: No interviews were focused on this species.
REMARKS: As reported by
Carter (2023
; personal commun.), two solitary individuals of
Coendou ichillus
were located at night using thermal imaging technology in the subcanopy of seasonally flooded primary forest near Tahuayo Lodge, an ecotourist facility about
2 km
WSW of El Chino.