Antechinus flavipes subsp. rubeculus, Van Dyck, 1982

Dyck, Steve Van, 2014, The Black-tailed Antechinus, Antechinus arktos sp. nov.: a new species of carnivorous marsupial from montane regions of the Tweed Volcano caldera, eastern Australia, Zootaxa 3765 (2), pp. 101-133 : 117

(11) A. arktos versus A. flavipes rubeculus Van Dyck

Pelage: A. arktos has a brownish-grey head that changes markedly to an orange-brown rump, fuscous black hindfeet, a thick-based, finely-furred, black tail and an orange-yellow eye and cheek patch; A. f. rubeculus has orange-toned fur on the upper hind feet and tail base and a pale eyering.

External Measurements: A. arktos has a significantly larger tv in males than A. f. rubeculus (see Table 5).

Craniodental Characters: A. arktos is smaller than A. f. rubeculus in absolute measurement for a range of measurements in males and females: IPV, M 2 W, R-LC 1, R-LM 1, R-LM 2 and SWR-LC 1 B. A. arktos is significantly smaller than A. f. rubeculus for R-LM 1 T and M 2 W in males and females. A. arktos is larger than A. f. rubeculus in absolute measurement for a range of characters in males and females: APV, IOW, I 1 -P 3, I 1 -P 3, UPL, and at TC in males only. A. arktos is significantly larger than A. f. rubeculus for a range of characters in males: BL, Dent, IBW, PPV, HT, PL, NWR and HT-B, and in females at: Dent, PPV, HT, PL, PML and HT-B ( Table 5).

Other Comments: A. arktos occur in south-east Qld and north-east NSW in areas of high elevation and rainfall on the Tweed Volcano caldera, whereas A. f. rubeculus is only found in the wet tropics of north-east Qld. Genetics: Uncorrected pairwise range differences at the mitochondrial gene CytB between A. arktos and A. f. rubeculus are 12.2–12.8%.