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
(14)
A. arktos
versus
A. mysticus
Baker, Mutton & Van Dyck
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. mysticus
has a greyish-brown head and neck, merging gradually to yellowish-buff on the rump and flanks, with a buff-brown tail base and slightly darkened tip.
External Measurements:
A. arktos
is significantly larger than
A. mysticus
in hf for males and females, and in wt, hb and tv for males (
Table 5
).
Craniodental Characters:
A. arktos
is significantly smaller than
A. mysticus
for R-LC
1
in
males and SWR-LC
1
B in females.
A. arktos
is larger than
A. mysticus
in absolute measurement for a range of characters in males and females: APV, BL, Dent, IBW, IOW, HT, 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. mysticus
for a range of characters in males: NW, OBW and PPV, and in females at: OBW and M
2
W (
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. mysticus
occurs in scattered coastal populations between the Qld / NSW border in far south-east Qld and Eungella NP near Mackay in mid-east Qld. Genetics: uncorrected pairwise range differences at the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome B (CytB) between
A. arktos
and
A. mysticus
are 13.2–14.1%.