Philander pallidus
| Philander pallidus | ||||||||||||
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Two preserved specimens in the Gothenburg Natural History Museum . |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Philander pallidus | ||||||||||||
| ( Allen , 1901) |
Philander pallidus is a species of marsupial from the opossum family(Didelphidae). It occurs in the extreme south of North America and in northern Central America on the Mexican peninsula Yucatan , in the Mexican states of Tabasco , Vera Cruz , Oaxaca , Chiapas , Puebla and in the south of Tamaulipas and in Belize , Guatemala and El Salvador .
description
Males of Philander pallidus reach a head body length of 24 to 31.5 cm, have a 28 to 31.5 long tail and reach a total length of 51.7 to 62.7 cm. Females are smaller with a total length of 47.5 to 55.8 cm, a head body length of 22 to 26.5 cm and a 24 to 29.3 long tail. The tail length of males and females thus reaches 96 to 119% of the length of the head. The skull is 6 to 7.7 cm long and 5.5 to 6.9 cm wide and a row of teeth in the upper jaw is 2.3 to 2.7 cm long. Older males get a crest 2 to 3 mm high.
| 5 | · | 1 | · | 3 | · | 4th | = 50 |
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The fur of the animals varies from gray to blackish, the face is darker and, as with all four-eye pouch rats, there are a pair of whitish spots above the eyes. The ventral side and cheeks are whitish, cream-colored or yellowish. The hair is relatively short. The first 5 to 8 cm of the tail are hairy and of the same color as the body, the rest of the tail is hairless and two-colored. The part close to the body is dark, the distant part is whitish. The white area at the tip of the tail is larger than in Philander melanurus , from Panama and Colombia and Ecuador west of the Andes, and specimens with completely black tails do not occur in Philander pallidus . Compared to Philander melanurus , the coat of Philander pallidus is usually lighter. The naked tail pouch rat is more gracefully built than Philander pallidus , has a longer tail (more than 33 cm long) and slimmer limbs.
Way of life
Philander pallidus occurs in tropical rain and mountain forests up to an altitude of 1650 meters. The animals are nocturnal, mostly solitary and live mostly on the ground, but can also climb and swim well. In the Lacandon settlement area there is an average of one specimen of Philander pallidus on an area of two hectares. The animals are particularly common near bodies of water or in dense undergrowth. Build their nests between palm roots, in hollow, fallen tree trunks or on trees between forks of branches, usually at heights of 8 to 10 meters. Philander pallidus is omnivorous and eats fruits, e.g. B. Sapotes , seeds and nectar and actively hunts various small animals such as frogs, crabs and other crustaceans, but also devours carrion. The remains of cockroaches , scarab beetles , sugar beetles , tumbler beetles , hymenoptera and seeds of ant trees , pepper and figs were found in fecal samples collected in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas . Philander pallidus is likely to breed all year round. Females with pups have been observed in Mexico in March, April, June, and October. Usually four to seven pups are born. The maximum lifespan for animals kept in human care is 2 years and four months.
Systematics
The species was first scientifically described in 1901 by the American zoologist Joel Asaph Allen under the name Metachirus fuscogriseus pallidus and thus Metachirus fuscogriseus , now a synonym for Philander melanurus , was assigned as a subspecies. Later it was listed as a subspecies of the gray four-eyed rat ( Philander opossum ). The genus Metachirus now includes only one species, the nudibranch rat ( Metachirus nudicaudatus ). In a revision of the genus Philander published in January 2018 , Philander pallidus was used as an independent species, as its type specimens represent a haplotype that is clearly different from Philander melanurus and Philander opossum . Philander pallidus and Philander melanurus are sister species .
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c Joel Asaph Allen: Descriptions of two new opposums of the genus Metachirus. (Metachirus fuscogriseus & pallidus). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History; v. 14, article 15 PDF
- ^ A b c Robert S. Voss, Juan F. Díaz-Nieto and Sharon A. Jansa. 2018. A Revision of Philander (Marsupialia: Didelphidae), Part 1: P. quica, P. canus, and A New Species from Amazonia. American Museum Novitates. Number 3891; 1-70. DOI: 10.1206 / 3891.1
- ↑ a b c d e Gerardo Ceballos: Mammals of Mexico. Johns Hopkins University Press, January 2014, ISBN 978-1421408439 . Pages 80–81.
- ↑ Diego Astua: Family Didelphidae (possums). Pages 70-186 in Don E. Wilson , Russell A. Mittermeier : Handbook of the Mammals of the World - Volume 5. Monotremes and Marsupials. Lynx Editions, 2015, ISBN 978-84-96553-99-6