Sylvilagus brasiliensis (Linnaeus)

VOSS, ROBERT S., 2003, A New Species of Thomasomys (Rodentia: Muridae) from Eastern Ecuador, with Remarks on Mammalian Diversity and Biogeography in the Cordillera Oriental, American Museum Novitates 3421, pp. 1-48 : 35

Sylvilagus brasiliensis (Linnaeus)

SPECIMENS COLLECTED: None.

OTHER MATERIAL: The type of Sylvilagus nivicola is a specimen collected at 4800 m ‘‘en el límite de nieves perpetuas’’ on Cerro Antisana , about 10 km south of Papallacta ( Cabrera, 1913: 6). Ten additional specimens of rabbits from Antisana ( AMNH 66659– 66668 ) were subsequently collected between 4115 and 4265 m by H.E. Anthony in 1923. Other material from Antisana (in the BMNH) was reported by Laurie (1955), and a few more specimens are scattered among other museums (e.g., MCN, MNCN).

TAXONOMY: All of the material at hand is referable to Sylvilagus brasiliensis in the sense of Hershkovitz (1950), the last comprehensive taxonomic review of South American lagomorph taxonomy. Hershkovitz (1950) treated nivicola Cabrera (1913) as a valid subspecies of S. brasiliensis , but Laurie (1955) synonymized nivicola with S. b. andinus ( Thomas, 1897b). The current treatment ( Hoffmann, 1993) of 41 nominal taxa ranging from southern Mexico to northern Argentina as synonyms or subspecies of S. brasiliensis obviously merits critical scrutiny, but is far beyond the scope of this faunal report.

REMARKS: Although I did not collect any rabbits near Papallacta, they were abundant in grassy habitats throughout the páramo zone.