Sciurus urucumus Allen

D’Elía, Guillermo, Mora, Ismael, Myers, Phil & Owen, Robert D., 2008, New and noteworthy records of Rodentia (Erethizontidae, Sciuridae, and Cricetidae) from Paraguay, Zootaxa 1784, pp. 39-57 : 49-52

Sciurus urucumus Allen

Fig. 7 . Table 1

Type Locality: Urucum (altitude 400 feet), Rio Paraguay (at mouth of Rio Tacuari), State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

Distribution: Known from the region around the type locality in Brazil (e.g., Tapiropoan by the Sepotuba River).

New record: ALTO PARAGUAY: 15) Parque Nacional Rio Negro, Estancia Kamba Aka, 19° 50.342' S 58° 45.302' W (TK 67300); Figure 1 .

Taxonomy: Sciurus urucumus was originally described as a subspecies of S. langsdorffii Brandt , which is currently regarded as a synonym of Sciurus spadiceus Olfers (e.g., Thorington & Hoffmann 2005). However, a revision currently underway of the species of South American Sciuridae indicates that S. urucumus represents a valid species (de Vivo, pers. com.).

Comments: This specimen represents the first citation of the family Sciuridae for Paraguay. The locality is about 140 km SW of the type locality ( Fig. 1 ). The specimen is a female with vagina open (date of collection: January 12, 2003), collected with a shotgun near midday in Chiquitano forest. The specimen was in a tree about eight m from the ground. Field observations show that in the area S. urucumus feeds on fruits of the palm Copernicia alba .

We examined a second specimen of Sciurus from Paraguay, from W Bank Rio Negro, 8 km above mouth, 20° 05.919' S 58° 08.764' W (locality 16, Fig. 1 ) (KU 165551). This specimen, consisting of a skin from what seems to be a juvenile individual, appears not to be referable to S. urucumus ; however, we are unable to determine its specific identity.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map of Paraguay indicating the localities where the specimens reported here were collected. Locality numbers refer to those of the text.

FIGURE 7. Dorsal, ventral and lateral views of the cranium and mandible of Sciurus urucumus from Paraguay (TK 67300). Scale bar = 5 mm.