Crocidura nigripes Miller and Hollister, 1921

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 : 71-75

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.5795544

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/038AB318-015E-E943-4DF2-F9D1FD86B13F

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Crocidura nigripes Miller and Hollister, 1921
status

 

Crocidura nigripes Miller and Hollister, 1921 View in CoL

Crocidura nigripes Miller and Hollister, 1921: 101 View in CoL . Original description.

Crocidura nigripes lipara Miller and Hollister, 1921: 101 View in CoL . Original subspecies description.

HOLOTYPE: USNM 217545 About USNM , an adult male collected by H.C. Raven on 4 August 1916 and prepared as a skin and skull. External measurements from the holotype are 131 mm × 51 mm × 14 mm; ear length and weight were not recorded.

TYPE LOCALITY: “Temboan (southwest from Tondano Lake), northeastern Celebes ” (Miller and Hollister, 1921: 101; fig. 1 View FIG ). We estimate Temboan is in the Southeast Minahasa Regency of North Sulawesi Province, 6 km south of Kalait , at 0.979° N, 124.605° E, 650 m. See the gazetteer (appendix) for a full justification of our interpretation of Raven’s notes GoogleMaps .

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Crocidura nigripes is generally regarded as a Sulawesi endemic that occurs broadly across lowland areas of the island ( fig. 1 View FIG ), but the species was tenta- tively reported from Obi Island by Fabre et al. (2018). This latter record is based solely on the similarity of cytochrome b sequences between C. nigripes and a single specimen from Obi; we have not examined the Obi specimen. On Sulawesi, we recorded this species from the north-east (Mt. Ambang, Temboan, and Lembeh, North Sulawesi Province), north-central (Toraut, North Sulawesi Province), north-west (Mt. Buliohuto, Gorontalo Province and Mt. Dako, Central Sulawesi Province), west-central (Mts. Balease, Rorekatimbo, and Torompupu, Toare, Tolai, and Sungai Miu, Central Sulawesi Province; Mt. Gandang Dewata (including our lowland sample area at Salu Tiwo), West Sulawesi Province), and east-central areas of endemism (Mt. Katopasa and Peleng Island, Central Sulawesi Province). Notably, we did not record the species from the south-west or southeast areas of endemism. Similarly, Musser (1987) reported the species only from the west-central area of endemism and northern peninsula. The full elevational extent of C. nigripes records across these areas extends from near sea level to just over 2000 m ( fig. 13 View FIG ; table 3 View TABLE 3 ).

EMENDED DIAGNOSIS: A medium-sized shrew ( tables 2 View TABLE 2 , 14 View TABLE 14 ) with a medium build and uniformly dark pelage, feet, and tail (light chocolate to black; fig. 36 View FIG ). The tail is shorter than head-andbody length. The hind foot is somewhat short relative to head-and-body length ( fig. 17 View FIG ), and usually dark brown to black. The skull is broad, and quite angular, with a prominent maxillary process, broad palate, and dentition with a large occlusal area relative to palatal area ( fig. 37B View FIG ). The interorbital region is unusually narrow, which enhances the prominence of the braincase breadth and maxillary process ( fig. 10 View FIG ). Rostral length makes up a large proportion of skull length ( fig. 10 View FIG ).

COMPARISONS: Crocidura nigripes is generally very dark in color with a short tail and moderate body size, but there is substantial variation in size

and color. The feet are often nearly black, which will, in most cases, distinguish this species from all Sulawesi shrews except the darkest members of the Small-Bodied Group, which are much smaller. Typically, C. nigripes is smaller than C. elongata , C. quasielongata , C. caudicrassa , and C. rhoditis , comparable in size to C. microelongata , C. pseudorhoditis , C. brevicauda , and C. australis , and larger than the remaining species known from Sulawesi. It is the largest species in the Ordinary Group. These size differences can be observed using measures of skull length, head-and-body length, mass, or hind foot length ( figs. 9 View FIG , 17 View FIG ). Tail length is shorter than head-and-body length, which will distinguish C. nigripes from all similarly sized shrews (as judged by HBL, CIL, etc.) except the two Thick-Tailed species, which have greater relative hind-foot lengths (HF/HBL) and stockier bodies ( figs. 9 View FIG , 17 View FIG ). The skull of C. nigripes has a more angular braincase, more prominent maxillary process (enhanced by the narrow interorbital region), and more robust dentition (larger occlusal surface area) than all other Sulawesi shrews. The relative interorbital width (IOW/CIL) is substantially less than in all other species except C. elongata and C. quasielongata ( fig. 10 View FIG ), two species with much longer skulls, tails, hind feet, and bodies.

COMMENTS: Phylogenetically, Crocidura nigripes is more closely related to shrew species endemic to Sundaland than to any others that live on Sulawesi ( Ruedi et al., 1998; Esselstyn et al., 2009, 2019; Hinckley et al. 2021). Our phylogenetic analyses conducted on far more species than previous studies reinforce this conclusion. We placed C. nigripes as sister to C. palawanensis , a species endemic to the Palawan Island group in the southwestern Philippines ( figs. 7 View FIG , 8 View FIG ). Hinckley et al. (2021) estimated C. nigripes as a close relative of C. foetida , a Bornean endemic that was not included in our analyses.

Miller and Hollister (1921) described two subspecies, Crocidura nigripes nigripes from Temboan and C. n. lipara from Gimpoe, in Central Sulawesi Province. Ruedi (1995) treated northern peninsula populations as C. n. nigripes and specimens from other parts of the island as C. n. lipara. He noted size differences with this geographic division, but also highlighted the limited sample of available specimens. We treat C. n. lipara as a synonym of C. nigripes because we have not identified any geographically partitioned morphological

( fig. 38 View FIG ; tables 15, 16) or genetic diversity with our improved sampling. Jukes-Cantor cytochrome b distances between specimens sampled from across Sulawesi are <0.01 ( fig. 4 View FIG ; supplementary data S3). As such, we see no reason to maintain the subspecific distinction between C. n. nigripes and C. n. lipara.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED: Mt. Ambang ( LSUMZ 39044 , 39279 , 39320 ), Mt. Balease ( MZB 38491 ; FMNH 210593 , 210595 , 210611 ), Mt. Buliohuto ( LSUMZ 38279–38281 , 38283 , 38286 , 38287 , 38292–38295 , 38297 ; NMV C37778 ) , Mt. Dako ( LSUMZ 37017–37019 , 37022 , 37025–37029 , 37032 , 37035–37049 ; NMV C37257 , C37265 , C37307 , C37318 , C37368 , C37369 ) , Mt. Gandang Dewata ( FMNH 218708 ), Gimpoe (= Gimpu ) ( USNM 219444 , 219446 ), Lake Lindu ( USNM 218668 , 501223 ), Mt. Katopasa ( LSUMZ 40925 ; NMV C40227 , C40229 , C40230 ), Koelawi (= Kulawi ) ( FMNH 47361 ), Kuala Navusu ( AMNH 226105 , 226106 , 226108 , 226109 , 226110 , 226112 ), Peleng Island ( AMNH 109215 ), Pinedapa ( USNM 219435 ), Mt. Rorekatimbo ( FMNH 213190 , 213191 , 213252 ), Salu Tiwo ( FMNH 218703 , 218704 , MZB 38488 , 38489 ), Toraut ( RMNH 38389 [= IZEA 4413 ], 38390 [= IZEA 4415 ]) , Lembeh ( FMNH 31844 ), Sungai Miu ( AMNH 223989 ), Sungai Tolewonu, Tolai ( AMNH 226537–226539 ), Temboan ( FMNH 43859 ; USNM 217536 , 217541– 217545 ), Toare (= Tuare or Toware ) ( FMNH 47362 , USNM 219434 , 219437–219440 , 219443 , 219447 ), Mt. Torompupu ( LSUMZ 39469–39474 ).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Soricomorpha

Family

Soricidae

Genus

Crocidura

Loc

Crocidura nigripes Miller and Hollister, 1921

Esselstyn, Jacob A., Achmadi, Anang S., Handika, Heru, Swanson, Mark T., Giarla, Thomas C. & Rowe, Kevin C. 2021
2021
Loc

Crocidura nigripes

Miller and Hollister 1921: 101
1921
Loc

Crocidura nigripes lipara

Miller and Hollister 1921: 101
1921
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