770.

Central Sulawesi Spiny Rat

Echiothrix centrosa

French: Petit Echiothrix / German: Zentral-Sulawesi-Stachelratte / Spanish: Rata espinosa de Célebes central

Other common names: Central Sulawesi Echiothrix

Taxonomy. Echiothrix centrosa G. S. Miller & Hollister, 1921,

“Winatu (between Koelawi and Gimpoe), Middle Celebes [= Central Sulawesi|,” Indonesia .

This species is monotypic.

Distribution. NW part of N peninsula and C Sulawesi.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 182- 225 mm, tail 230-265 mm, ear 32-35 mm, hindfoot 48-55 mm; weight 215-270 g. Central Sulawesi Spiny Rat is medium-sized, with spiny/bristly pelage intermixed with soft hair and dark gray or bluish gray dorsum. Venteris less spiny and whitish. External and skull measurements are smaller than those of the Northern Sulawesi Spiny Rat ( E. leucura). The Central Sulawesi Spiny Rat has the following characters: elongated muzzle; eye encircled by dark mask;tail 103-116% of head-body length, with moderately large tail scales each bearing 2-3 hairs; white tip tail (47-67% oftail length); short and slender whitish forearms, with short thin claws; elongated hindfoot; whitish dorsal side; three middle digits longer than twolateral ones; two pairs of inguinalteats; and large testes relative to head-body length. Cranially, jaw symphysis is flexible; skull has elongated and slender rostrum; interand postorbital ridges are present; braincase is squarish, with develop occiput; zygomatic root is low on skull side and close to tympanic bulla; zygomatic plate is moderately wide; subsquamosal foramen and alisphenoid strut are absent; incisive foramina is long and wide; long bony palate projects well beyond M?; posterior palatine foramina is at level of M* or M?; sphenopalatine vacuities are slightly long and wide; pterygoide plate is absent or highly reduced; auditory bulla is medium-sized; stapedial foramen is large; dentary with huge diastema and lower incisors is long; lower incisors have white enamel and very long incisor roots; enamel is white on upper incisors; upper molarshave three roots; lower molars have two roots; M’ and M, are small; there is no cusp t7 on upper molars; simple occlusal pattern forms crashing basin; cusp t3 is present on M, and M,, a lesser frequency than on the Northern Sulawesi Spiny Rat; large antero-labial and lingual cusp are absent on M, and M,; postero-labial cusplet are rarely present on M,, M,, and M,; antero-labial cusplet is present in low frequency on M, and M,; and posicrior cingaliendis rarely present M, and M,,.

Habitat. Primary tropical lowland rainforest from sea level to elevations of c.1100 m.

Food and Feeding. The Central Sulawesi Spiny Rat is a vermivore specialist. Its diet includes mainly earthworms and smaller quantities of geophilomorph centipeds and insects such as small beetle larvae, termites, and beetles.

Breeding. A Central Sulawesi Spiny Rat with three embryos was collected in September, and a lactating female was collected in November. Males with enlarged and scrotal testes were collected in October and November.

Activity patterns. The Central Sulawesi Spiny Rat is nocturnal and likely terrestrial.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Northern Sulawesi Spiny Rats probably build nest using dry leaves.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List due to a past, current, and projected population decline greater than 30% over ten years. Lowland evergreen forests on Sulawesi are declining rapidly and extensively, but due to difficulty in trapping rats that specialize on earthworms, nothing is known about population levels. Additional studies are clearly required.

Bibliography. Miller & Hollister (1921), Musser (1990), Musser & Carleton (2005), Musser & Durden (2014), Rowe et al. (20164).