Leopardus colocola, (MOLINA, 1782)

Nascimento, Fabio Oliveira Do, Cheng, Jilong & Feijó, Anderson, 2021, Taxonomic revision of the pampas cat Leopardus colocola complex (Carnivora: Felidae): an integrative approach, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 191, pp. 575-611 : 591-593

LEOPARDUS COLOCOLA ( MOLINA, 1782)

( FIG. 10)

Colocolo or Central Chilean pampas cat

Felis colocola Molina, 1782: 295 ; type locality: ‘boschi del Chili,’ restricted to ‘ Province of Valparaiso’ ( Chile) by Osgood (1943: 79). The neotype was collected in Santiago, Chile .

felis colocolla: M. Gruvel, 1789: 275 [French translation of Molina (1782)]; incorrect subsequent spelling of Felis colocola Molina.

Felis colorolla: Bechstein, 1800: 699 ; incorrect subsequent spelling of Felis colocola Molina.

Felis Corololo : Shaw, 1800: 369; incorrect subsequent spelling of Felis colocola Molina.

Felis colocolo: Anonymous [‘an American Gentleman’] 1808: 206 [English translation of Molina (1782)]; incorrect subsequent spelling of Felis colocola Molina.

F [elis]. Colocollo: Fischer, 1829: 204; incorrect subsequent spelling of Felis colocola Molina.

F [elis]. Colicollo: Wagner, 1841: 546; incorrect subsequent spelling of Felis colocola Molina.

Felis pajeros: Gay, 1847 : lámina nº3; not Felis pajeros Desmarest.

Catus Pajeros : Fitzinger, 1861: 391; name combination; not Felis pajeros Desmarest.

Panthera Maracaya , albescens: Fitzinger, 1869: 22; name combination.

Felis passerum: Sclater, 1871: 700 ; part; name combination.

Oncifelis colocolo: J. A. Allen, 1919: 374 ; part; name combination.

Lynchailurus colocolus colocolus: Cabrera, 1940: 12 ; name combination; unjustified emendation of colocola Molina.

Lynchailurus pajeros huina Pocock, 1941: 261 ; type locality: ‘The range of mountains over Lake Catapilco , near Aconcagua, 900 m. alt .’.

Felis pajeros colocolo: Osgood, 1943: 79 ; name combination.

Felis [( Lynchailurus )] colocolo colocolo: Cabrera, 1958: 276 ; name combination.

F [elis]. colocola colocola: Ximénez, 1961:5 ; name combination.

Oncifelis (Lynchailurus) pajeros: Hemmer, 1978: 77 ; part; name combination.

Lynchailurus colocolo: García-Perea, 1994: 24 ; part.

L[ynchailurus]. c[olocolo]. colocolo: García-Perea, 1994: 31 .

Leopardus colocolo: Wozencraft, 2005: 538 ; part; name combination.

[ Leopardus colocolo ] colocolo: Wozencraft, 2005: 538 ; name combination.

Leopardus colocola: Kitchener , Breitenmoser- Würsten, Eizirik, Gentry, Werdelin, Wilting, Yamaguchi, Abramov, Christiansen, Driscoll, Duckworth, Johnson, Luo, Meijaard, O’Donoghue, Sanderson, Seymour, Bruford, Groves, Hoffmann, Nowell, Timmons & Tobe, 2017: 51; part; name combination.

Leopardus colocola colocola: Kitchener , Breitenmoser- Würsten, Eizirik, Gentry, Werdelin, Wilting, Yamaguchi, Abramov, Christiansen, Driscoll, Duckworth, Johnson, Luo, Meijaard, O’Donoghue, Sanderson, Seymour, Bruford, Groves, Hoffmann, Nowell, Timmons & Tobe, 2017: 53; name combination.

Type material: Molina (1782) did not mention any specimen on which he based his Felis colocola . According to Osgood (1943: 81), ‘Molina’s descriptions were usually colored by hearsay, that such specimens as he may have seen were not in his hands at the time of writing’. Therefore, no original material is available, leaving the species without any name-bearing type specimen. The taxonomic history of Leopardus colocola is dynamic and debated (see: Wolffsohn, 1908; Cabrera, 1940; Osgood, 1943; and taxonomic notes below). Numerous interpretations of Molina’s Felis colocola have led to contrasting classifications and only a designation of a neotype can define this nominal taxon objectively. Thus, to clarify the taxonomic status of Leopardus colocola , we designate the specimen USNM391852 housed at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA as the neotype of Felis colocola Molina, 1782 ( Fig. 10). The specimen consists of a skin of unknow sex and agrees with the current concept of the species.

Type locality: The neotype was collected in Santiago, Chile .

Diagnosis: Leopardus colocola is distinguished by ash grey background colour speckled with rusty cinnamon hairs on forehead, crown, nape, sides of body and tail. The spinal crest is dark grey with few cinnamon hairs. The sides of the body show a distinct rusty cinnamon colour with dark grey oblique lines. Two rusty cinnamon cheek stripes are present. The ear has a cinnamon colour with blackish tip and margins. The gular stripes are rusty cinnamon. Chest and abdomen exhibit irregular transversal rusty cinnamon stripes and legs present marked dark rusty rings. The tail is marked by dark grey rings. The skull has a welldeveloped sagittal crest, occupying the total length of the parietal suture.

Geographical distribution: Leopardus colocola is restricted to Central Chile on the western slope of the Andes (from sea level to 1800 m). It is found in Mediterranean forests, woodlands and shrublands of the Chilean Matorral. The geographical distribution is limited to the north by the Atacama Desert (apparently with a marginal distribution to the south of this region, in the coastal range), to the east by the Andes and to the south by the Valdivian temperate forests, where it seems to be replaced by the kodkod, Le. guigna ( Fig. 9; Supporting Information, Appendix S3, Fig. S5).

Ta x o n o m i c n o t e s: T h e u s e o f c o l o c o l a a n d i t s derivations, such as colocolo and colocolus , have been traditionally problematic and have generated numerous interpretations among different authors about the correct spelling ( Cabrera, 1940, 1958, 1961; Osgood, 1943; Kitchener et al., 2017). Further details on this subject can be found in Kitchener et al. (2017).

Cabrera (1940), in his review of the identity of Molina’s Felis colocola , treats pampas cats as a polytypic species with six subspecies: Lynchailurus colocolus colocolus, Ly. c. pajeros, Ly. c. braccatus, Ly. c. crucinus, Ly. c. garleppi , and Ly. c. thomasi. Furthermore, Cabrera (1940) proposed the genus Oreailurus for Felis jacobita Cornalia, 1865 , a taxon that has historically been confused with Le. colocola . Probably unaware of Cabrera’s article, Pocock (1941) and Schwangart (1941) (both authors were also probably unaware of each other’s articles) mistakenly recognized Felis jacobita Cornalia, 1865 as a synonym of Felis colocola Molina, 1782 , and classified the Andean mountain cat in different genera. Pocock (1941) classified the Andean mountain cat as Colocolo colocola , while Schwangart (1941) named it Montifelis colocola . In addition, the true Leopardus colocola of Molina from Central Chile was named Lynchailurus pajeros huina by Pocock, whereas Schwangart considered it as the same species of the Andean mountain cat. Notably, Pocock’s and Schwangart’s taxonomic arrangements were shared by the following authors: Burmeister, 1854; Philippi, 1869, 1870, 1873; Lydekker, 1896; J. A. Allen, 1919; Yepes, 1929.

García-Perea (1994) recognized two subspecies: the nominal from central Chile and a new taxon, Lynchailurus colocolo wolffsohni , from northern Chile (type locality: ‘Camarones, Tarapacá, Chile’). However, our results indicate that wolffsohni is a junior synonym of Le. garleppi (see the account of this species for more details).

Remarks: Wolffsohn (1908) commented that there are two morphs of background colour, one ash grey and the other orangish, but we did not observe the latter pattern among the examined specimens.