Antechinus swainsonii subsp. insulanus, Davison, 1991

Dyck, Steve Van, 2014, The Black-tailed Antechinus, Antechinus arktos sp. nov.: a new species of carnivorous marsupial from montane regions of the Tweed Volcano caldera, eastern Australia, Zootaxa 3765 (2), pp. 101-133 : 111

(3) A. arktos versus A. swainsonii insulanus Davison

Pelage: A. arktos has a brownish-grey head that changes markedly to an orange-brown rump, fuscous black hindfeet, a thick-based, finely-furred, black tail and an orange-yellow eye and cheek patch; A. s. insulanus has more uniformly dark brown or grizzled grey fur on the head and back, with a subtly brownish rump, as well as dark brownish hindfeet and tail.

External Measurements: A. arktos is similar in external body measurements to A. s. insulanus (see Tables 1, 4 and 5).

Craniodental Characters: A. arktos is smaller than A. s. insulanus in absolute measurement at APV in males and females. A. arktos is smaller than A. s. insulanus in absolute measurement at M 2 W in males ( Tables 1, 4 and 5).

Other Comments: A. arktos occur in south-east Qld and north-east NSW in areas of high elevation and rainfall on the Tweed Volcano caldera, whereas A. s. insulanus is limited to the Grampians Range in western Victoria, some 1200km to the south-west. Genetics: uncorrected pairwise difference at the mitochondrial gene CytB between A. arktos and A. s. insulanus is 9.8%.