Coendou Lacépède 1799 , Tabl. Mamm.: 11 Order Rodentia - Family Erethizontidae Wilson, Don E. Reeder, DeeAnn 3RYX Lacépède 1799 Lacépède 1799 Mammalia Erethizontidae Coendou Animalia Rodentia 1546 Chordata genus     CoendouLacépède 1799, Tabl. Mamm.: 11.   Type Species:  Hystrix prehensilis Linnaeus 1758   Synonyms:  CoanduFischer 1814;  CoenduLesson 1827;  Coendus Geoffroy 1803;  CuanduLiais 1872.   Species and subspecies:4 species with 4 subspecies: Species  Coendou bicolorTschudi 1844 Subspecies  Coendou bicolorsubsp. bicolorTschudi 1844 Subspecies  Coendou bicolorsubsp. quichuaThomas 1899 Subspecies  Coendou bicolorsubsp. richardsoni Allen 1913 Subspecies  Coendou bicolorsubsp. simonsiThomas 1902 Species  Coendou nycthemera Olfers 1818 Species  Coendou prehensilis( Linnaeus 1758) Species  Coendou rothschildiThomas 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  Sphiggurusin  Coendou; but see Husson (1978:484-490). Woods (1984, 1993) and Nowak (1991)followed Husson (1978)and recognized  Sphiggurusas distinct from  Coendou. Handley and Pine (1992), Voss and Angermann (1997), and Alberico et al. (1999)concluded that  Sphigguruscould not be meaningfully diagnosed as a taxon distinct from  Coendou. Bonvicino et al. (2000) suggested that  Coendouand  Sphiggurusrepresent distinct lineages that have evolved by different chromosomal mechanisms.  Coendouappears 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  Coendouand  Sphiggurus.