Antechinus bellus, (Thomas)

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 : 116

(8) A. arktos versus A. bellus (Thomas)

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. bellus is pale to medium grey above, sometimes with a fawn tinge, with pale grey belly, hands and feet.

External Measurements: A. arktos males have significantly smaller ears than A. bellus ( Table 5).

Craniodental Characters: A. arktos is smaller than A. bellus in absolute measurement for a range of characters in males and females: IPV, M 2 W, R-LC 1, R-LM 1, R-LM 2, R-LM 3 and SWR-LC 1 B. A. arktos is significantly smaller than A. bellus in BuL for males. A. arktos is larger than A. bellus in absolute measurement for a range of craniodental characters in males and females: APV, Dent, IBW, IOW, PPV, TC, NWR, PML, HT-B, I 1 -P 3, I 1 -P 3 and UPL. A. arktos is significantly larger than A. bellus in BL and PL for males and in HT and PL for females ( Table 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. bellus is known only from Northern Territory. Genetics: uncorrected pairwise difference at the mitochondrial gene CytB between A. arktos and A. bellus is 12.0%.