Coendou longicaudatus Daudin, 1802

Voss, Robert S., Fleck, David W. & Jansa, Sharon A., 2019, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 5. Rodents, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2024 (466), pp. 1-180 : 113-115

Coendou longicaudatus Daudin, 1802

Figure 47

VOUCHER MATERIAL (N = 6): Nuevo San Juan (AMNH 268263, 273130; MUSM 11224, 15325), Santa Cecilia (FMNH 86916, 86917). Additionally, Pavlinov (1994) recorded a single ZMMU specimen (as “ Coendou? bicolor ”) from Jenaro Herrera that we have not seen.

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: El Chino ( Carter, 2023), Jenaro Herrera ( Ríos et al., 1974; Tovar, 2011), San Pedro ( Valqui, 1999, 2001). 32

IDENTIFICATION: Coendou longicaudatus has traditionally been synonymized with Coendou prehensilis (Linnaeus, 1758) , but recently analyzed morphological and molecular data suggest that it is a distinct species ( Menezes et al., 2021). Our voucher material agrees in all respects with Husson’s (1978: 478–484) detailed description of nearly topotypical material (from Surinam), and measurements of our series (table 34) fall within the previously documented range of morphometric variation in this very widespread species (Voss, 2011: table 7). Cytochrome b sequence data from two of our vouchers (AMNH 273130, MUSM 15324) were analyzed by Voss et al. (2013) and Menezes et al. (2021), both of whom documented the surprising genetic

32 Most unvouchered reports of porcupines from our region have misidentified this species as Coendou bicolor (see above).

homogeneity of C. longicaudatus across its enormous geographic range (see below).

According to Menezes et al. (2021), the Coendou prehensilis complex includes three valid species: (1) Coendou prehensilis (sensu stricto), which occurs in the easternmost Brazilian states of Alagoas, Paraíba, and Pernambuco; (2) C. longicaudatus , which occurs from Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas throughout most of Amazonia and the Cerrado to Paraguay and northwestern Argentina; and (3) C. baturitensis Feijó and Langguth, 2013 , which occurs in the Brazilian states of Ceará, Maranhão, and Pará (south of the Amazon and east of the Rio Xingu). Although we have not seen material of C. prehensilis in its currently restricted sense, we recently examined two specimens of C. baturitensis (from Cameta, on the left bank of the Rio Tocantins: MCZ 30556, 30557) that precisely match the diagnostic traits of that species as listed by Menezes et al. (2021: table 2). Taken together with the authors’ sequencing results, the case for recognizing three valid species in the C. prehensilis complex now seems compelling (contra Voss, 2015). However, some of Menezes et al.’s diagnostic comparisons fail to acknowledge individual and/or geographic variation in C. longicaudatus . For example, the lacrimal was said to be indistinguishably fused to surrounding cranial bones even in neonatal specimens, but opensutured lacrimals are present in some juveniles (e.g., AMNH 268263), and some lacrimal sutures occasionally persist even in fully adult individuals (e.g., MUSM 15324). We also note that, although C. prehensilis (sensu stricto) has substantially smaller craniodental measurements than Brazilian populations of C. longicaudatus (see Menezes et al., 2021: table 2), C. prehensilis is about the same size as specimens of C. longicaudatus from northern Colombia (Voss, 2011: table 7), and we doubt that these species could be distinguished morphometrically if such geographic variation were taken into account.

ETHNOBIOLOGY: The Matses name for the long-tailed porcupine is isa, which is cognate with the name for porcupine in most other Panoan languages. The Matses do not recognize any subtypes of this species. A few Matses have reported seeing another type of porcupine that is said to be smaller, but it is not certain whether they are referring to a different species or to juvenile individuals of C. longicaudatus .

Porcupines are not eaten by the Matses, who have no other economic interest in them. Porcupines occasionally enter Matses houses, and when this happens, the Matses believe it to be an omen that someone in the household will soon die. Dogs are sometimes injured by quills when they try to bite a porcupine.

MATSES NATURAL HISTORY: The porcupine has teeth like a paca’s. It has whiskers on its snout, and its eyes are close to its nose. It has long, sharp quills on its body, and shorter spines on its head and tail, although the top of the end of the tail (the prehensile surface) is free of spines. The quills are banded and detach easily when the porcupine is hit with a stick. Porcupines have a strong, distinctive smell that can be detected from a long distance away.

The porcupine is mostly arboreal, but also comes down to the ground. Porcupines are not seen very often, and not all Matses have seen them.

It dens in holes in trees. It also sleeps on tree branches, usually where there is a vine tangle that provides some shelter.

The porcupine is nocturnal. It can climb trees and vines quickly. During the night, it feeds on the bark of tree branches or on the bark of the trunks of small trees (i.e., they do not feed on the trunks of large trees, presumably because they cannot cling to them). It comes down to the ground to feed on rotten tree stumps, to eat the rinds of fallen palm nuts, and occasionally to eat mud at mineral licks.

It chews noisily on bark.

The porcupine eats tree bark, including the bark of dead trees. It also eats the rind of palm nuts that have fallen to the ground long ago (especially those of the genus Attalea , including budëd [ A. butyracea ])

REMARKS: All four specimens of Coendou longicaudatus accompanied by capture data from our region were taken in primary floodplain (seasonally inundated) forest. Two were shot at night as they ate bark in the subcanopy (about 20–25 m above the ground), whereas a malefemale pair were shot in the daytime as they rested “very high up in a tree hole” (possibly the central cavity of a hollow tree; D.W.F. field notes, 1 October 1999). Matses observations are consistent with what little is known about the behavior of this species (reviewed by Voss, 2015), notably including its visits to mineral licks ( Griffiths et al., 2020).