Leopardus pajeros

Nascimento, Fabio Oliveira Do, Cheng, Jilong & Feijó, Anderson, 2021, Taxonomic revision of the pampas cat Leopardus colocola complex (Carnivora: Felidae): an integrative approach, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 191, pp. 575-611 : 593-596

LEOPARDUS PAJEROS ( DESMAREST, 1816)

( FIG. 11)

Southern pampas cat.

Felis pajeros Desmarest, 1816: 114 ; based on ‘Le Pajeros de d’Azara’ ( Azara, 1802: 160; 1801: 179); the neotype was collected near the city of Santa Rosa, department Capital, province of La Pampa, Argentina.

L [eo]. brunneus Oken, 1816: 1070; part; unavailable name (ICZN, 1956: Opinion 417).

Felis Pampa Schinz, 1821: 237 ; based on Azara (1801) and Oken (1816); type locality: ‘Provinz Buenos- Ayres’ (Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Felis pageros: Lesson, 1827: 175 ; incorrect subsequent spelling of Felis pajeros Desmarest.

P [uma]. pajeros: Jardine, 1834: 267 ; name combination.

Lynx pageros: Boitard, 1843: 427 ; name combination and incorrect subsequent spelling of Felis pajeros Desmarest.

[ Felis (Lynchailurus) ] pajeros: Severtzov, 1858: 386 ; name combination.

Pajeros pampanus: Gray, 1867: 270; name combination.

Panthera Pajeros : Fitzinger, 1869: 66; name combination.

Felis passerum: Sclater, 1871: 700 ; part; name combination.

Felis pajero: Burmeister, 1879: 128 ; part; incorrect subsequent spelling of Felis pajeros Desmarest.

[ Catus ] pajeros: Matschie, 1895: 199 ; name combination; not Catus Pajeros Fitzinger.

[ Felis (Felis) ] pajeros: Trouessart, 1897: 364 ; name combination.

Felis pajeros crucina Thomas, 1901: 247 ; based on the specimen collected by Darwin in 1834 (BM 55.12.24.261) and described and figured as Felis pajeros by Waterhouse (1839: 18, plate IX); type locality: ‘Santa Cruz’ ( Argentina).

Lynchailurus pajeros crucina: Allen, 1905: 183 ; name combination.

[ Dendrailurus ] pajeros: Pocock, 1917: 348 ; name combination.

Lynchailurus pajeros pajeros: Allen, 1919: 375 ; name combination.

Felis fasciatus Larrañaga, 1923: 345 ; based on ‘Le Chat Pajeros’ of Azara.

Lynchailurus pajeros: Cabrera, 1925: 93 ; name combination.

L [ynchailurus]. colocolus pajeros: Cabrera, 1940: 12 ; name combination; unjustified emendation of colocola Molina.

L [ynchailurus]. colocolus crucinus: Cabrera, 1940: 12; name combination; unjustified emendation of colocola Molina.

Lynchailurus pajeros pajeros: Pocock, 1941: 259 ; part ( Felis pajeros crucina Thomas treated as a synonym); name combination.

Lynchailurus pajeros pajeros: Schwangart, 1941: 26 ; part ( Felis pajeros crucina Thomas treated as a synonym); name combination.

[ Lynchailurus (Lynch [ailurus].) pajeros braccatus ] Phase A: Schwangart, 1941: 31; name combination.

Felis [( Lynchailurus )] colocolo pajeros: Cabrera, 1958: 277 ; part ( Felis pajeros crucina Thomas treated as a synonym); name combination.

Felis (Lynchailurus) colocolo pajeros: Cabrera, 1961: 199 ; part ( Felis pajeros crucina Thomas treated as a synonym); name combination.

F [elis]. colocola pajeros: Ximénez, 1961: 6 ; name combination.

Felis (Lynchailurus) colacola pajeros: Daciuk, 1974: 35 ; incorrect subsequent spelling of colocola of Molina.

Oncifelis (Lynchailurus) pajeros: Hemmer, 1978: 77 ; part; name combination.

Lynchailurus pajeros: García-Perea, 1994: 31 ; part; name combination.

L [ynchailurus]. p [ajeros]. crucinus: García-Perea, 1994: 32; name combination.

L [ynchailurus]. p [ajeros]. pajeros: García-Perea, 1994: 32 ; name combination.

Leopardus pajeros: Wozencraft, 2005: 538 ; part; name combination.

Leopardus colocola: Kitchener, Breitenmoser-Würsten, Eizirik, Gentry, Werdelin, Wilting, Yamaguchi, Abramov, Christiansen, Driscoll, Duckworth, Johnson, Luo, Meijaard, O’Donoghue, Sanderson, Seymour, Bruford, Groves, Hoffmann, Nowell, Timmons & Tobe, 2017: 51 ; part; name combination.

Leopardus colocola pajeros: Kitchener , Breitenmoser- Würsten, Eizirik,Gentry,Werdelin,Wilting,Yamaguchi, Abramov, Christiansen, Driscoll, Duckworth, Johnson, Luo, Meijaard, O’Donoghue, Sanderson, Seymour, Bruford, Groves, Hoffmann, Nowell, Timmons & Tobe, 2017: 53; part ( Felis pajeros crucina Thomas treated as a synonym); name combination.

Type material: Desmarest (1816: 114) named ‘Le Pajeros de d’Azara’ as Felis pajeros . The Pajero ( Azara, 1802: 160) or the Chat Pampa ( Azara, 1801: 179) of Azara refer to a medium felid (86 cm) with small tail (27 cm), faint stripes along the body and pale hands and feet. Although few specimens from Azara’s expedition are known to have survived to the present day ( Hershkovitz, 1987; Voss et al., 2009), we have failed to find any existing felid among them, and assume that none exist, leaving the species without any original material. Because the long and debated taxonomy of L. pajeros , with conflicting classifications proposed over the years, including seven subspecies (see taxonomic notes below), we find it justified to designate a neotype to fix the application of Felis pajeros Desmarest, 1816 . The neotype is an adult female deposited in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’, Buenos Aires, Argentina ( MACN 25843), consisting of a skin, skull and postcranial skeleton ( Fig. 11). The specimen was collected by Javier Pereira on 9 April 2013 and agrees with Azara’s (1801, 1802) external description of Le. pajeros . The cranial measurements of the neotype are: GLS 96.64; CBL 83.40; RL 33.53; ZB 66.67; GBB 46.30; IFB 28.14; GPB 40.54; GPL 36.53; CM 1L 29.32; ALT 58.52; p 3m 1L 22.56; MH 26.79; ML 60.87; postorbital breadth 28.72; interorbital length 19.91; greatest length of P4 12.44; temporal fossa height 29.44.

Type locality: The neotype was collected near the city of Santa Rosa , department Capital , province of La Pampa, Argentina. This locality is part of the original distribution of the species as reported by Azara, who stated that it occurs between 35° and 36° S latitude in the pampas south of Buenos Aires ( Azara, 1801: 179) .

Diagnosis: Forehead, crown, nape and spinal crest are brownish grey or dark brownish grey colour; black, dark brown, yellowish brown or dark yellowish brown gular stripes, with at least one of them markedly wider than others; sides of body brownish grey with markings absent or, when present, with dark brown or dark yellowish brown indistinct oblique lines; tail brownish grey without rings and black tips.

Geographical distribution: Confirmed records range from north-western Argentina (Province of Catamarca) to the Strait of Magellan, Chile ( Fig. 9; Supporting Information, Appendix S3, Fig. S6). Its presence in the northern portion of Argentina pending confirmation and may represent a contact zone with Le. garleppi .

Taxonomic notes: The taxonomic history of the southern pampas cat began with the description of Felis pajeros by Desmarest in 1816, which was based on ‘Le Chat Pampa’ of Azara (1801). In the same year, Oken described his ‘Leo brunneus’, which part of it was also based on the work ofAzara. However, this name proposed by Oken is not Linnean and, therefore, unavailable for Zoological Nomenclature (see: ICZN, 1956; Opinion 417). For a long time, the name pajeros was used for the pampas cats, mainly due to uncertainties about the true identity of colocola and whether this name would be valid or not. Since the name colocola was well established to designate the pampas cats, the name pajeros was relegated to subspecies level (e.g. Cabrera, 1958, 1961; Ximénez, 1961, 1970).

García-Perea (1994) recognized Le. pajeros as a polytypic species with seven subspecies ( Lynchailurus p. pajeros, Ly. p. budini, Ly. p. crespoi, Ly. p. crucinus, Ly. p. garleppi, Ly. p. steinbachi and Ly. p. thomasi), which apparently represented a clinal variation. However, we did not detect any clinal variation along the populations distributed from Ecuador to the south of Argentina. In fact, we found a clear discontinuity in the pelage patterns in the Catamarca region, northwestern Argentina, where two patterns are present: one represented by Le. garleppi (e.g. MACN 50.446, La Atravesada, Andalgalá, Catamarca) and other by Le. pajeros ( MACN 37.39 and 37.40, both from Catamarca, without precise locality). The first pattern occurs from Catamarca northwards to Ecuador, while the second is distributed southwards to the Strait of Magellan. Thus, we treat budini, crespoi, steinbachi, thomasi and wolffsohni as junior synonyms of Le. garleppi (see the taxonomic notes of that species). We also found no evidence that crucina Thomas, 1901 and pajeros Desmarest, 1816 are different taxa, thus we treat the former as a junior synonym of the latter, following Schwangart (1941) and Kitchener et al. (2017).

Remarks: In adults and subadults the markings on the side of the body may be faint or evident; in the latter case, they form indistinct oblique lines that may be dark brown or dark yellowish brown. In young individuals, conspicuous dark markings arranged in the scapuloinguinal direction along the flanks are visible. We did not find melanistic specimens. One specimen ( MACN 1.23) from the central Pampa (precise locality unknown) shows a distinct coloration, the background colour of the throat, chest, venter, limbs and fore and hind feet were ochraceous, while the markings in these areas were cinnamon (spots and stripes in the throat, chest and venter) and dark brown (the stripes in limbs). Cabrera (1961), who also examined this specimen, commented that it may be a case of partial erythrism.