Crocidura australis, Esselstyn & Achmadi & Handika & Swanson & Giarla & Rowe, 2021

Esselstyn, Jacob A., Achmadi, Anang S., Handika, Heru, Swanson, Mark T., Giarla, Thomas C. & Rowe, Kevin C., 2021, Fourteen New, Endemic Species Of Shrew (Genus Crocidura) From Sulawesi Reveal A Spectacular Island Radiation, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2021 (454), pp. 1-109 : 48-49

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1206/0003-0090.454.1.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7982B923-4CDC-44ED-A598-8651009DC7CC

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5795528

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/3ABC433E-7C35-47DD-B52B-D33CC37F8F62

taxon LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:act:3ABC433E-7C35-47DD-B52B-D33CC37F8F62

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Crocidura australis
status

sp. nov.

Crocidura australis , new species

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3ABC433E-7C35-47DD-B52B-D33CC37F8F62

HOLOTYPE: MZB 43003 (= MVZ 237610 About MVZ ), an adult of unknown sex collected by K.C. Rowe on 30 October 2016. The specimen was preserved as a study skin, cleaned skull ( fig. 24 View FIG ) and skeleton, and frozen tissues. External measurements from the holotype are: 141 mm × 65 mm × 16 mm × 11 mm = 9.8 g. The voucher specimen and a tissue sample will be permanently curated at MZB, with another tissue sample retained at MVZ.

TYPE LOCALITY: Indonesia, Sulawesi Selatan, Sinjai, Sinjai Barat, Gunung Perak Village , Mt. Bawakaraeng ; 5.308463° S, 119.948661° E, 2390– 2550 m elevation.

GoogleMaps

ETYMOLOGY: We use the Latin for “southern,” as this species is the most southern member of the Rhoditis Group.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This species is known only from the south-west area of endemism and was only collected from Mt. Bawakaraeng, South Sulawesi Province ( fig. 20 View FIG ) on traplines placed around 1660–2040 and 2390– 2550 m elevation ( fig. 13 View FIG ; table 3 View TABLE 3 ).

DIAGNOSIS: Crocidura australis is a mediumsized shrew ( tables 2 View TABLE 2 , 7 View TABLE 7 ) with a thick, mediumbrown dorsal pelage and slightly paler venter. Hairs of the middorsum are 6–7 mm long. The color of the tail matches that of the dorsal pelage, but the feet are paler than the surrounding fur, particularly on the digits ( fig. 21A View FIG ). The tail is slightly shorter than the head-and-body length and not distinctly bicolored. Applied hairs on the tail are inconspicuous and bristles are sparsely distributed along the proximal half of tail length. The claws are translucent and surrounded by small tufts of white hairs. On the hind foot, the claws are long and the tufts more prominent than on the forefoot. The foot pads are more darkly pigmented than the surrounding plantar and palmar surfaces, but the difference is greater on the hind foot than on the forefoot. The external ears, though not small, are indistinct from the surrounding fur, due to the matching color, length, and density of the pelage. The mystacial vibrissae are relatively short, and mostly unpigmented. A few pigmented vibrissae are found posterior to the shorter, unpigmented vibrissae. Those with pigment are pigmented only proximally, typically for no more than half of their length. The braincase is wide relative to skull length ( fig. 10 View FIG ), high, and somewhat angular, with a lateral point in the mastoid region and relatively prominent lambdoidal ridges ( fig. 24A View FIG ). The ridge formed by the parietal-squamosal suture is indistinct. The interorbital region is also wide relative to skull length ( fig. 10 View FIG ), but it is strongly tapered. Despite the strongly tapered interorbital region, the maxillary process is not prominent when viewed from the dorsal aspect. The dentition is somewhat prominent relative to palatal width ( fig. 24A View FIG ).

COMPARISONS: Crocidura australis is substantially larger in body size than all members of the Small-Bodied Group and somewhat larger than C. musseri , C. ordinaria , and C. solita of the Ordinary Group ( fig. 9 View FIG ). It is smaller than members of the Thick-Tailed Group and Elongata Subgroup. Relative to members of the Rhoditis Group, it is smaller than C. rhoditis and C. pseudorhoditis in all dimensions except ear length, but similar in size to C. pallida ( figs. 19 View FIG , 23 View FIG ; tables 2 View TABLE 2 , 7 View TABLE 7 ). In color, C. australis is darker than all other members of the Rhoditis Group, particularly on the feet. Crocidura ordinaria and C. solita of the Ordinary Group are similar in color and only a little smaller, but their braincases are more rounded than in C. australis . The somewhat angular shape of the braincase, however, is nevertheless more rounded than in C. pseudorhoditis . The great relative breadth of the braincase (BB/CIL) in C. australis distinguishes it from all other species except C. baletei (much smaller and darker), C. levicula (much smaller and darker), C. musseri (smaller and darker), and C. ordinaria (smaller). In comparison to other Rhoditis Group species, C. australis is substantially smaller in condyloincisive length and braincase breadth than the much larger skull of C. rhoditis and the somewhat larger skull of C. pseudorhoditis ( fig. 19 View FIG ). Condyloincisive length is somewhat smaller than in C. pallida , although these two species are quite similar in head-and-body length. The interorbital region and labial breadth at M2 are also narrower than noted in C. rhoditis or C. pseudorhoditis ( table 7 View TABLE 7 ). Relative rostral length (RL/ CIL) in C. australis is less than in any other member of the Rhoditis Group, though only slightly so compared to C. pallida .

COMMENTS: Published references to C. rhoditis from the southwestern peninsula ( Musser, 1987; Ruedi, 1995) probably refer to this species. Crocidura australis was consistently inferred as sister to the clade containing C. ordinaria and C. solita of the Ordinary Group with varying degrees of support ( figs. 4 View FIG , 5 View FIG , 7 View FIG , 8 View FIG ; supplementary data 6).

SPECIMENS EXAMINED: Mt. Bawakaraeng ( MZB 40991 , 41027 , 43003 ; NMV Z56801 , NMV Z57200 , NMV Z57223 ).

MZB

Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense

MVZ

Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California Berkeley

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Soricomorpha

Family

Soricidae

Genus

Crocidura

GBIF Dataset (for parent article) Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF