Coendou Lacépède 1799

Coendou Lacépède 1799, Tabl. Mamm.: 11.

Type Species: Hystrix prehensilis Linnaeus 1758

Synonyms: Coandu Fischer 1814; Coendu Lesson 1827; Coendus Geoffroy 1803; Cuandu Liais 1872 .

Species and subspecies: 4 species with 4 subspecies:

Species Coendou bicolor Tschudi 1844

Subspecies Coendou bicolor subsp. bicolor Tschudi 1844

Subspecies Coendou bicolor subsp. quichua Thomas 1899

Subspecies Coendou bicolor subsp. richardsoni Allen 1913

Subspecies Coendou bicolor subsp. simonsi Thomas 1902

Species Coendou nycthemera Olfers 1818

Species Coendou prehensilis (Linnaeus 1758)

Species Coendou rothschildi Thomas 1902

Discussion: Cabrera (1961), Hall (1981), Corbet and Hill (1991), Handley and Pine (1992), Emmons and Feer (1997), McKenna and Bell (1997), Voss and Angerman (1997), Alberico et al. (1999) and Voss and da Silva (2001) included Sphiggurus in Coendou; but see Husson (1978:484-490). Woods (1984, 1993) and Nowak (1991) followed Husson (1978) and recognized Sphiggurus as distinct from Coendou . Handley and Pine (1992), Voss and Angermann (1997), and Alberico et al. (1999) concluded that Sphiggurus could not be meaningfully diagnosed as a taxon distinct from Coendou . Bonvicino et al. (2000) suggested that Coendou and Sphiggurus represent distinct lineages that have evolved by different chromosomal mechanisms. Coendou appears to be karyotypically conserved with 2n=74 and FN=82 (Bonvicino et al., 2000). Although karyotypes have been reported in only two taxa of Coendou, the chromosomal and molecular data (Bonvicino et al., 2002 a) tentatively support the distinction of Coendou and Sphiggurus .