Antechinus bellus (Thomas, 1904)

Dyck, Steve Van, 2013, Taxonomy and redescription of the Fawn Antechinus, Antechinus bellus (Thomas) (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae), Zootaxa 3613 (3), pp. 201-228 : 211-212

(3) A. bellus versus A. flavipes leucogaster Gray

Pelage: Antechinus bellus is a strikingly pale animal: pale to medium grey above, sometimes with a faun tinge, whereas A. flavipes leucogaster has a greyish head that merges to buff-yellow on the rump and flanks.

External measurements: Antechinus bellus is larger than A. flavipes leucogaster in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for the following external characters for males and females: tail length and ear length. Moreover, A. bellus is significantly larger than A. flavipes leucogaster in head-body length and hindfoot length for both males and females (Table 2).

Skull: Antechinus bellus differs from A. flavipes leucogaster in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for the following 3 skull/dentary characters for males: R-LM 1, PL and LML and the following 4 skull/ dentary characters for females: R-LM 1, UML, BuL and LML. Moreover, A. bellus has a range of other dentary features that significantly (p<0.01) differ from A. flavipes leucogaster —13 variables for males and 13 variables for females, as shown in Table 2.

Other comments: Antechinus bellus is found in savannah woodlands of the Top End, Northern Territory, whereas A. flavipes leucogaster is found in south-western Australia. A. bellus possesses a distally thickened and twisted supratragus of the ear rather than the simple, uncurled structure found in A. flavipes leucogaster . Genetics: uncorrected pairwise difference at the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome B (CytB) between A. bellus and A. flavipes leucogaster is 9.9%.