Antechinus argentus, Baker, Mutton & Hines, 2013

Baker, Andrew M, Mutton, Thomas Y & Hines, Harry B, 2013, A new dasyurid marsupial from Kroombit Tops, south-east Queensland, Australia: the Silver-headed Antechinus, Antechinus argentus sp. nov. (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae), Zootaxa 3746 (2), pp. 201-239 : 217

(2) A. argentus versus A. flavipes flavipes (Waterhouse)

Pelage: A. argentus has pale olive-buff fur on the upper hind feet and tail base, whereas A. flavipes flavipes has marked orange-tonings on the hands, feet and tail base. A. argentus has deep olive-buff fur on the flanks and rump, whereas A. flavipes flavipes has brownish-yellow-orange fur on the rump and flanks.

External measurements: There were no significant differences in external body measures (Table 4), although male and female A. argentus have smaller mean body weight than A. flavipes flavipes ; indeed, in females this difference was absolute (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) and only rendered non-significant because of small sample size in female A. argentus (n = 2 for body weight) (Tables 1 & 3).

Dentary: Antechinus argentus differs from A. flavipes flavipes in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for the following characters in males: smaller M 2 W and M 2 W and females: smaller M 2 W, M 2 W, R-LC 1, UML and HT (refer Tables 1 & 3). A. argentus has a range of further dentary features that significantly (p<0.05) differ from A. flavipes flavipes —1 variable for males and 1 variable for females, as shown in Table 4.

Other Comments: Genetics: uncorrected pairwise range differences at the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome B (CytB) between A. argentus and A. flavipes flavipes are 10.0–11.2%.