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 : 218

(6) A. argentus versus A. bellus (Thomas)

Pelage: A. argentus has a silvery head and neck that merges subtly to deep olive-buff on the rump and flanks, whereas A. bellus is an even paler animal: pale to medium grey above, sometimes with a fawn tinge, with pale grey belly, hands and feet.

External measurements: A. argentus is smaller than A. bellus in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for three external body characters in males, as follows: hb, hf and e and for four external body characters in females: hb, tv, hf and e.

Dentary: Antechinus argentus is smaller than A. bellus in absolute measurement for a range of dentary characters in males and females, as follows: BL, Dent, IPV, M 2 W, OBW, R-LC 1, R-LM 1, R-LM 2, R-LM 3, ZW, HT, PL, SWR-LC 1 B, UML, HT-B, BuL, I 1 -P 3, LML, I 1 -P 3 and M 2 W. A. argentus is larger than A. bellus in absolute measurement for males and females in IOW. A. argentus differs significantly from A. bellus at a further 1 variable for males: NW (Table 4).

Other Comments: A. argentus occurs in south-east Qld at Kroombit Tops NP, whereas A. bellus is known only from Northern Territory. Genetics: uncorrected pairwise range differences at the mitochondrial gene CytB between A. argentus and A. bellus are 7.9–8.4%.