Antechinus stuartii, Macleay, 1841

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 : 118

(15) A. arktos versus A. stuartii Macleay

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. stuartii is more uniformly brownish-grey on the head and back.

External Measurements: A. arktos is larger than A. stuartii in absolute measurement for wt, hb and hf in males, and at hf in females. A. arktos is significantly larger than A. stuartii for males and females at tv ( Table 5).

Craniodental Characters: A. arktos is larger than A. stuartii in absolute measurement for a range of characters in males and females, as follows: APV, BL, Dent, IBW, IOW, OBW, ZW, HT, PL, NWR, PML, UML, HT-B, BuL, I 1 -P 3, LML, I 1 -P 3 and UPL. A. arktos is significantly larger than A. stuartii for a range of characters: in males IPV, NW, R-LM 1, R-LM 2, R-LM 3 and TC, and in females at IPV, NW and TC ( Table 5).

Other Comments: A. arktos occurs in south-east Qld and north-east NSW in areas of high elevation and rainfall on the Tweed Volcano caldera. A. stuartii occurs in eastern NSW north of about Sydney to far south-east Queensland (Girraween NP, Lamington NP, Main Range NP, Springbrook NP and Tamborine NP) and occurs sympatrically with A. arktos . Genetics: uncorrected pairwise range differences at the mitochondrial gene CytB between A. arktos and A. stuartii are 13.4–15.1%.