The Black-tailed Antechinus, Antechinus arktos sp. nov.: a new species of carnivorous marsupial from montane regions of the Tweed Volcano caldera, eastern Australia
Author
Dyck, Steve Van
Queensland Museum, Vertebrate Zoology (Mammals & Birds), PO Box 3300, South Brisbane, Qld, 4101, Australia
text
Zootaxa
2014
2014-02-17
3765
2
101
133
journal article
5910
10.11646/zootaxa.3765.2.1
300ad198-2377-4bfd-9381-6868ee9c5f7a
1175-5326
5045725
E7DDABDA-5DA6-4309-A26F-121FCB030EEE
(10)
A. arktos
versus
A. flavipes leucogaster
Gray
Pelage:
A. arktos
has a brownish-grey head that changes markedly to an orange-brown rump, fuscous black hindfeet, a thick-based, finely-furred, black tail and an orange-yellow eye and cheek patch;
A. f. leucogaster
has marked yellowish-brown fur on the hands, feet and tail base and a pale eyering.
External Measurements:
A. arktos
is significantly larger than
A. f. leucogaster
in tv and hf for males and females, and in wt and hb for males (
Table 5
).
Craniodental Characters:
A. arktos
is significantly smaller than
A. flavipes leucogaster
in R-LM
2
for males and females.
A. arktos
is larger than
A. f. leucogaster
in absolute measurement for a range of craniodental measures in males and females: APV, BL, Dent, IBW, IOW, PPV, PL, TC, NWR, PML, UML, HT-B, I
1
-P
3
, LML, I
1
-P
3
and UPL.
A. arktos
is significantly larger than
A. f. leucogaster
in males and females for HT (
Table 5
).
Other Comments:
A. arktos
occur in south-east Qld and north-east NSW in areas of high elevation and rainfall on the Tweed Volcano caldera, whereas
A. f. leucogaster
only occurs on the other side of the continent, in southwest
Western Australia
. Genetics: Uncorrected pairwise range differences at the mitochondrial gene CytB between
A. arktos
and
A. f. leucogaster
are 11.4–12.8%.