Chironectes minimus (Zimmermann, 1780)

Voss, Robert S., Fleck, David W. & Jansa, Sharon A., 2019, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 3: Marsupials (Didelphimorphia), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2019 (432), pp. 1-89 : 47-49

Chironectes minimus (Zimmermann, 1780)

Figure 18

VOUCHER MATERIAL: Centro Unión (FMNH 106721).

OTHER INTERFLUVIAL RECORDS: Nuevo San Juan (this report), Quebrada Pobreza ( Pitman et al., 2015), San Pedro ( Valqui, 1999), Santa Rosa (this report).

IDENTIFICATION: With its boldly gray-andblack banded dorsal pelage, webbed hind feet, and semiaquatic habits, the water opossum cannot be confused with any other species of Neotropical mammal. The single specimen we examined from our region (FMNH 106721) is mounted in a crudely lifelike pose with the skull inside; stuffed with sawdust and with painted seeds for eyes, it was probably manufactured for the tourist trade. A penciled cardboard tag attached to the left hind foot indicates the locality (Río Aucayo), the collector (Pekka Soini), and the date (12 February 1972). An inked FMNH label tied to the right hind foot further resolves the locality as “Río Aucayo, Centro Unión.” We infer that the specimen was probably purchased from a native taxidermist by Pekka Soini in the course of his fieldwork at Centro Unión in the

u: Loreto (20) − MUSM 13293 *

u: Loreto (20) − AMNH 272780 *

Bolivia: Cochabamba (1) − MSB 70283

Bolivia: La Paz (2) − AMNH 264565

u: Madre de Dios (22) − MVZ 157634

SW

azil: Amazonas (5) − MVZ 190285

Amazonia

azil: Acre (3) − MVZ 190296

azil: Acre (4) − MVZ 190294

Peru: Madre de Dios (23) − KU 144119

u: Cusco (17) − FMNH 174441

: Amazonas (6) − MVZ 190288

azil: Minas Gerais (9) − MVZ 197591

azil: Espírito Santo (8) − MVZ 182773 M. myosuros

azil: São Paulo (11) − MVZ 182774

Atlantic

Paraguay: Canendiyú (16) − MNHNP 3423 Forest

Paraguay: Canendiyú (16) − MNHNP 3424

azil: Rio de Janeiro (10) − MVZ 182772

azil: Bahia (7) − MNRJ 31454

u: Loreto (18) − TTU 101180

Ecuador: Pastaza (13) − USNM 574502 NW

u: Loreto (21) − KU 157976 Amazonia Ecuador: Orellana (12) − ROM 105345

u: Loreto (19) − TTU 100926

anama: Bocas del Toro (14) − USNM 578137 Central

Panama: Panamá (15) − ROM 104229 America

: Brokopondo (27) − ROM 114155

: Potaro−Siparuni (26) − ROM 111938

Guiana (24) − T−4487 M. nudicaudatus

French Guiana (25) − T−5032

TABLE 17

early 1970s (appendix 1), but there is no way to be certain about exactly where the animal was collected. Fortunately, there are other interfluvial records of Chironectes , one of which is documented by a photograph (fig. 18).

Although central Amazonia (including the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve) falls outside the mapped geographic range of Chironectes minimus in most standard references (e.g., Stein and Patton, 2008), recent observations and gene-sequencing results ( Ardente et al., 2013; Brandão et al., 2015; Oliveira et al., 2016; Voss and Jansa, 2018) suggest that the water opossum is continuously distributed from Central America to southeastern Brazil. Despite geographic variation in craniodental morphology reported by Damasceno and Astúa (2016) and Cerqueira and Weber (2017), this species seems to be genetically undifferentiated across most, if not all, of cis-Andean South America, and it shows minimal genetic divergence even across the Andes ( Voss and Jansa, 2018). Therefore, the “subspecies” of C. minimus currently recognized by authors ( Gardner, 2005; Stein and Patton, 2008) are unlikely to represent valid taxa.

ETHNOBIOLOGY: Because the water opossum is unknown to most of the Matses, they have no particular beliefs about it.

MATSES NATURAL HISTORY: The Matses have no definite knowledge of this species.

REMARKS: One of the previously unpublished records from our region is based on an unambiguous sighting made by Matses hunters near Nuevo San Juan and reported by them to D.W.F. in 2006. The second is based on a specimen killed by a Matses hunter on 27 January 2017 near the village of Santa Rosa and photographed by D.W.F. at Estirón on the following day; in the absence of collecting permits, it was not preserved.

Figures

FIG. 18. Chironectes minimus killed by a Matses hunter on the lower Quebrada Chobayacu (photographed by D.W.F. at Estirón, 2017). The webbed hind feet and black-and-gray banded dorsal pelage are unambiguously diagnostic traits.