Myoprocta acouchy (Erxleben 1777)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Dasyproctidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1556-1559 : 1558

Myoprocta acouchy (Erxleben 1777)

[Cavia] acouchy Erxleben 1777 , Systema Regni Animalis, Vol. 1: 354.

Type Locality: French Guiana, Cayenne.

Vernacular Names: Red Acouchi.

Synonyms: Myoprocta acuschy ( Linnaeus 1788) ; Myoprocta demararae Tate 1939 ; Myoprocta exilis (Wagler 1831) ; Myoprocta leptura (Wagner 1844) .

Distribution: Guyana, Surinam. French Guiana, and Brazil north of the Amazon and east of the Rio Branco.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as M. acouchy, Data Deficient as exilis .

Discussion: The name acouchy has been applied to the red acouchi by Thomas (1926 d:639), Cabrera (1961:591) and Emmons and Feer (1997:230-231) and to the green acouchi by Tate (1939), Husson (1978) and Woods (1993). Voss et al. (2001) pointed out that the disagreement among these authors is whether geography or color should be given greater importance in applying the name acouchy . Voss et al. (2001) favored geography and selected a neotype of Cavia acouchy Erxleben (1777) that stabilizes the nomenclature. Includes exilis (Voss et al., 2001:151) , which has been applied to the red acouchi by Husson (1978:468-472) and Tate (1939:151-229) but Allen (1916) considered exilis a green acouchi (see Voss et al., 2001). Karyotype has 2n=62 and FN=120 ( Fredga, 1966).