New and noteworthy records of Rodentia (Erethizontidae, Sciuridae, and Cricetidae) from Paraguay
Author
D’Elía, Guillermo
Author
Mora, Ismael
Author
Myers, Phil
Author
Owen, Robert D.
text
Zootaxa
2008
1784
39
57
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.182407
882b995c-8e5b-42a4-ac52-3dcf104ab6ac
1175-5326
182407
Akodon paranaensis
Christoff
et al
.
Fig. 2
.
Table 1
.
Type
Locality:
Piraquara (Estacão Ecológica Canguiri), Paraná,
Brazil
.
Distribution
: Extreme northeastern Misiones Province in northeastern
Argentina
, and southeastern
Brazil
.
FIGURE 2.
Dorsal, ventral and lateral views of the cranium and mandible of
Akodon paranaensis
from Paraguay (TK 66278). Scale bar = 5 mm.
New records
: 1) ITAPUA, Estancia Parabel,
0.3 km
E of houses,
26º 20.91' S
55º 30.75' W
,
420 m
(TK 66185, TK 66278).
Figure 1
.
Taxonomy
:
Akodon
is the most diverse genus of
Sigmodontinae
with around 42 forms currently considered as valid species, and with several more taxonomic forms considered as subspecies or full synonymies of the valid forms (Musser & Carleton 2005).
As
expected given these numbers, several aspects of the
Akodon
alpha taxonomy remain confused and poorly addressed. Among them are the distinction of
A. paranaensis
and
A. reigi
Gonzalez
et al
. These
two species are very similar morphologically, share the same diploid complement of 2n = 44, show complementary distributions, and are sister to each other in phylogenetic analyses (Fig, 3; see also
Gonçalves
et al
. 2007
). Remarkably, in the description of
A. paranaensis
(
Christoff
et al
. 2000
)
, no comparison with
A. reigi
was made. Moreover, the same populations in southern Rio Grande do Sul (southern
Brazil
) were allocated to both species in their original descriptions (
Gonzalez
et al
. 1998
;
Christoff
et al
. 2000
). Our analysis includes a haplotype recovered from a
paratype
of
A. reigi
(MNHNA 3682), but lacks haplotypes from the
type
locality of
A. paranaensis
as well as from intermediate areas of Rio Grande do Sul. Therefore, we recognize for the moment both forms as valid species, and since the Paraguayan haplotypes fall in the northern clade (i.e,
A. paranaensis
;
Fig. 3
), we allocate the Paraguayan specimens to
A. paranaensis
. Haplotypes recovered from populations assigned to
A. paranaensis
(i.e., those from
Brazil
, northern
Argentina
, and
Paraguay
) and to
A. reigi
(those from
Uruguay
), which form reciprocally monophyletic groups, differ on average by 5.93 % (observed divergence: range 4.37 – 10.62 %, n=12). Observed variation within
A. paranaensis
ranges from 1.0 to 9.48 %, while that observed between the available pair of haplotypes of
A. reigi
is 3.8 %.
FIGURE 3.
Partial phylogenetic hypothesis of
Akodon
(strict consensus of 2 most parsimonious trees: 531 steps; IC=0.571; IR=0.568) showing the relationships of cytochrome
b
haplotypes recovered from specimens assigned to
A. paranaemsis
and
A. reigi
. Numbers at nodes indicate jackknife support values. Genbank accession numbers are listed next to species names. Arrows indicate the localities where the specimens were collected. The Paraguayan locality corresponds to locality 1 in Figure 1. * indicates that the sequence was generated in this study.
Comments
: These specimens constitute the first citation of
A. paranaensis
for
Paraguay
; which elevates to four the number of
Akodon
species (
A. azarae
,
A. montensis
, and
A. toba
in addition to
A. paranaensis
) known for the country (
Myers
et al
. 2002
). The Paraguayan records expand to the west the known distribution of
A. paranaensis
. These specimens were collected in primary tropical forest as well as in secondary forest. Importantly, these records indicate that
A. paranaensis
also inhabits forested areas, in addition to grasslands.
The specimens reported here were collected in the month of October (1998) and were males with scrotal testes. Other small mammal species collected in the same traplines as the
A. paranaensis
reported here include the sigmodontines
Akodon montensis
,
Bibimys chacoensis
(Shamel)
,
Oligoryzomys nigripes
(Olfers)
, and
Thaptomys nigrita
(
Lichtenstein
)
, and the small didelphid
Monodelphis sorex
(Hensel)
.
TABLE 1.
Measurements (mm), weight (gm), and sex of specimens representing new or noteworthy records from Paraguay. Data were taken from specimen tags and field catalogs. TBL, total body length; TL, tail length; HF, hind foot length (including the claw); EL, ear length; W: weight.
Species |
Catalog number |
sex |
TBL |
TL |
HF |
EL |
W |
Akodon paranaensis
|
TK 66185 |
♂ |
203 |
95 |
25 |
18 |
39.1 g |
A. paranaensis
|
TK 66278 |
♂ |
231 |
107 |
29 |
18 |
42.4 g |
Bibimys chacoensis
|
GD 153 |
Ψ |
185 |
80 |
23 |
18 |
40.5 g |
B. chacoensis
|
TK 65978 |
♂ |
163 |
80 |
21 |
16 |
19.2 g |
B. chacoensis
|
TK 66294 |
♂ |
161 |
74 |
25 |
16 |
20.4 g |
B. chacoensis
|
TK 66400 |
♂ |
178 |
81 |
20 |
16 |
24.8 g |
B. chacoensis
|
TK 66401 |
♂ |
(132) |
(37) |
21 |
16 |
23.5 g |
B. chacoensis
|
TK 66436 |
♂ |
179 |
76 |
22 |
16 |
33.1 g |
B. chacoensis
|
TK 132621 |
Ψ |
(142) |
(35) |
21 |
16 |
39 g |
Oxymycterus misionalis
|
TK 130587 |
Ψ |
303 |
135 |
36 |
25 |
121 g |
O. misionalis
|
TK 121751 |
Ψ |
(277) |
(132) |
35 |
26 |
87 g |
O. misionalis
|
TK 121752 |
♂ |
(281) |
(151) |
36 |
26 |
140 g |
Cerradomys maracajuensis
|
GD 371 |
Ψ |
378 |
207 |
40 |
21 |
115 g |
C. maracajuensis
|
GD 372 |
Ψ |
383 |
206 |
40 |
22 |
120 g |
C. maracajuensis
|
GD 373 |
Ψ |
366 |
202 |
39 |
22 |
94.5 g |
C. maracajuensis
|
GD 389 |
Ψ |
244 |
142 |
31 |
14 |
25.5 g |
C. maracajuensis
|
GD 390 |
♂ |
396 |
212 |
41 |
22 |
135 g |
Pseudoryzomys simplex
|
GD 0 65 |
Ψ |
252 |
132 |
30 |
16 |
38.4 g |
P. s i m p l e x
|
TK 61744 |
♂ |
247 |
128 |
30 |
17 |
38.5 g |
Sciurus urucumus
|
TK 67300 |
Ψ |
467 |
234 |
63 |
33 |
352 g |
Sphiggurus spinosus
|
GD 252 |
Ψ |
547 |
214 |
61 |
17 |
1040 g |
S. spinosus
|
UMMZ 174975 |
Ψ |
615 |
236 |
58 |
26 |
? |
Genus
Bibimys
Massoia
|
Bibimys chacoensis
(Shamel)
Fig. 4. Table 1
|
Type
Locality:
Las Palmas, Chaco,
Argentina
.
Distribution
: Known from the Argentinean provinces of Chaco,
Formosa
and Misiones.
New records
: ITAPUA: 1) Estancia Parabel,
0.3 km
E of house,
26º 20.91' S
55º 30.75' W
,
420 m
(TK 66294); 2)
3.2 km
N,
0.4 km
E Ape Aimé
26 32.13' S
54 50.44' W
(TK 65978); 3) Estancia Parabel,
5.8 km
SW of house (by road),
26º 23.34' S
55º 32.25' W
,
360 m
(TK 66400, TK 66401, TK 66436); 4) Estancia San Isidro,
5.18 km
NW of houses,
26º 29.284' S
;
55º 53.803' W
(GD 153); 5) Parque Nacional San Rafael
26º 30’ 14.2’’ S
55º 47’ 32.5’’ W
,
134 m
(TK 132621).
Figure 1
.
FIGURE 4.
Dorsal, ventral and lateral views of the cranium and mandible of
Bibimys chacoensis
from Paraguay (TK 132621). Scale bar = 5 mm.
Taxonomy
: The genus
Bibimys
was recently revised by D’Elía
et al
. (2005). Results of analyses of morphological and molecular geographic variation that included individuals assigned to the three currently recognized species of
Bibimys
(
B. chacoensis
,
B. labiosus
[Winge],
B. torresi
Massoia
) question the distinctiveness of these forms. However, no formal change in the taxonomy of
Bibimys
species was proposed.
Comments
: These records constitute the first formal mention of the genus
Bibimys
for
Paraguay
, and the specimens are referred to
B. chacoensis
. These records partially fill the gap in the previous known distribution of the species, which had been reported from the Argentinean provinces of Chaco and
Formosa
in the west, and Misiones in the east (D’Elía
et al
. 2005;
Pardiñas & Teta 2005
). Field notes available for some of the Paraguayan specimens of
Bibimys
indicate that they were trapped in small patches of humid grassland near or inside remnants of tropical forest. Four of the specimens were males collected from July to September (1998) that presented scrotal testes. A female collected in January (2007) had a closed vagina, while another collected in November (1999) was lactating and had an open vagina. Other mammal species collected in the same trap lines as the specimens of
Bibimys
were
Akodon montensis
,
A. paranaensis
,
Monodelphis sorex
,
Necromys lasiurus
(Lund)
,
Nectomys squamipes
(Brants)
, and
Oligoryzomys fornesi
(Massoia)
.