Capromys Desmarest, 1822a

Silva, Hansel Caballero & Mancina, Carlos A., 2023, Capromys pilorides (Rodentia: Echimyidae), Mammalian Species 55 (1027), pp. 1-14 : 1-2

Capromys Desmarest, 1822a

Isodon Say, 1822:332 . Type species Isodon pilorides Say, 1822 , by monotypy. Name has been considered to be preoccupied by Isoodon M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in Desmarest, 1817:409, a genus of marsupial.

Capromys Desmarest, 1822a:185 . Type species Capromys fournieri Desmarest, 1822a , by original designation.

Procapromys Chapman, 1901:322 . Type species Capromys geayi Pousargues, 1899:152 , by original designation.

CONTEXT AND CONTENT. Order Rodentia , suborder Hystricomorpha , superfamily Octodontoidea , family Echimyidae , subfamily Capromyinae , tribe Capromyini .

Capromyidae was considered a separate family (e.g., Woods et al. 2001; Woods and Kilpatrick 2005); however, molecular studies indicate that the hutias should be considered a subfamily of Echimyidae ( Upham and Patterson 2012; Fabre et al. 2014; but see Fabre et al. 2017). Until the mid-1970s, almost all Cuban species in the family Capromyidae were referred to Capromys ; posteriorly Geocapromys , Mysateles , and Mesocapromys , at first considered subgenera of Capromys ( Chapman 1901; Varona 1974), were raised to the generic level ( Kratochvil et al. 1978). Several extinct species of Capromys have been described from fossil deposits in Cuba ( Arredondo de la Mata 1958; Varona and Arredondo 1979; Varona 1984a, 1984b). The systematic review by Silva Taboada et al. (2007) synonymized most of the previously described extinct species as C. pilorides and

that this specimen represented a cryptic species of Capromys . Those high levels of cytochrome-b divergence prompted Woods and Kilpatrick (2005) to classify hutias from Cayo Ballenato del Medio as C. gundlachianus , but later they were referred to as C. pilorides gundlachianus ( Kilpatrick et al. 2012) . Pending further morphological and molecular analysis, we will follow Silva Taboada et al. (2007) and tentatively recognize Capromys as a monotypic genus (but see Upham and Borroto-Páez 2017). recognized two species ( C. acevedo and C. latus ) in the genus Macrocapromys ( Arredondo de la Mata, 1958) ; this extinct genus has been considered synonymous with Capromys by some authors ( Morgan and Woods 1986; Woods and Kilpatrick 2005; Borroto-Páez et al. 2012b; Morgan et al. 2019).

Capromys garridoi is a controversial extant species, it was described from a single, incomplete and young individual. Due to lack of unequivocal diagnostic characteristics, it has been reinterpreted as a misidentified specimen of C. pilorides ( Silva Taboada et al. 2007) . However, Borroto-Páez et al. (2012b) suggested that the taxonomic status of C. garridoi might need further investigation. Furthermore, an undescribed species of Capromys from Cayo Ballenato del Medio, from east of the archipiélago de Sabana-Camagüey, was studied by Borroto-Páez et al. (2005). It was morphologically similar to individuals of C. pilorides but showed a higher level of cytochrome-b sequence divergence (5.5–6.4%) compared with levels of divergence seen between samples from all currently recognized C. pilorides subspecies (0.4–1.9%). Borroto-Páez et al. (2005) proposed