Marmosa (Micoureus) parda Tate, 1931

Voss, Robert S., Giarla, Thomas C., Díaz-Nieto, Juan F. & Jansa, Sharon A., 2020, A Revision Of The Didelphid Marsupial Genus Marmosa Part 2. Species Of The Rapposa Group (Subgenus Micoureus), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2020 (439), pp. 1-60 : 1-60

Marmosa (Micoureus) parda Tate, 1931

Marmosa germana parda Tate, 1931: 4 (original description).

Marmosa (Marmosa) germana parda: Cabrera, 1958: 15 (name combination).

Micoureus regina: Gardner, 1993: 20 (part; parda treated as synonym); not regina Thomas, 1898 .

Micoureus regina germanus: Gardner and Creighton, 2008: 81 (part; parda treated as synonym); not germana Thomas, 1904 .

Marmosa (Micoureus) regina: Voss and Jansa, 2009: 101 (part; parda treated as synonym); not regina Thomas, 1898 .

TYPE MATERIAL AND TYPE LOCALITY: The holotype (by original designation, FMNH 24140 ) consists of the skin and skull of an adult male collected by J. T. Zimmer on 28 September 1922 at Huachipa , Huánuco, Peru. Both elements of the type specimen are in excellent condition. In addition to the holotype, Tate (1931) mentioned that he had examined 15 other specimens of this taxon, all of which can be considered paratypes ; Tate (1933: 82–83) listed this material, which included several BMNH specimens, but not all of these are conspecific with the holotype (see Remarks, below) .

DISTRIBUTION AND SYMPATRY: The material we refer to Marmosa parda is all from the upper Río Huallaga drainage between about 1000 and 2000 m in the departments of Huánuco and La Libertad, Peru ( fig. 17 ). We are not aware that this species occurs sympatrically with any other member of the subgenus Micoureus .

DESCRIPTION: The dorsal pelage of Marmosa parda is dull brownish gray (near Ridgway’s Citrine Drab or Grayish Olive), with little tonal variation in the material we examined; at midback the fur ranges in length from 12 to 15 mm. The ventral fur is almost completely gray based, except on the chin and groin, which have self-yellowish or -buffy fur; additionally, a very narrow median streak of self-yellowish fur is present in some specimens. The tail seems to be slightly more than 130% of head-and-body length, judging from the few available specimens measured by the American method; it is covered with short fur for only about 25 mm or less at the base, and the exposed caudal skin is completely dark (brownish in dried specimens) without any bold whitish markings. The manus and pes are covered dorsally with pale hairs in most specimens, but a few have indistinctly darker metacarpal pelage.

Mature adult skulls of Marmosa parda are larger and more robust than those of M. rapposa in same-sex comparisons ( fig. 13 , table 8 ). However, these taxa are otherwise cranially similar, with short, wide rostrums; broadly flaring zygomatic arches; and well-developed postorbital processes. In ventral view, the maxillopalatine fenestrae are widely open and extend from M1 to M 3 in most specimens. Palatine fenestrae are consistently present and usually well developed. The auditory bullae are smoothly globular in most specimens, but they are faintly conical in at least one (FMNH 24137), which has vascularized

sinuses on the ventral apex. The upper molar series is longer than those typically seen in M. rapposa , ranging from 8.5 to 9.1 mm in the specimens we measured. The first three upper molars have long postprotocristae. Most specimens have distinct postcingulids on m1–3, but these structures are indistinct (possibly worn away) in two specimens (FMNH 24138, 24139).

COMPARISONS: Comparisons of Marmosa parda with M. rapposa have already been provided, so it only remains to compare this species with its sister taxon, M. rutteri . These species are externally similar, but the dorsal fur is typically somewhat longer in parda (≥ 12 mm) than in rutteri (in which it is usually <12 mm). Additionally, the tail appears to be relatively shorter in parda than in rutteri , although this is hard to assess with measurements obtained in the field by collectors using different protocols. Lastly, the ventral fur is more extensively gray based in most specimens of parda than it is in most specimens of rutteri . Although Tate (1933: 83) claimed that parda and rutteri were not distinguishable cranially, the clearest distinction between these taxa is the consistent, bilateral presence of large palatine fenestrae in parda and the absence, unilateral presence, or reduced size of these openings in rutteri .

REMARKS: Tate (1931) originally described Marmosa parda as a subspecies of M. germana , but M. germana is a distantly related taxon ( fig. 6 ) that has short postprotocristae and lacks palatine fenestrae and postcingulids. Specimens that we refer to M. germana are only known from lowland localities north of the Amazon in northeastern Peru and eastern Ecuador.

Among the BMNH paratypes listed by Tate (1933: 82–83), only two that we examined (BMNH 27.11.1.246, 27.11.1.248), both from Huánuco, are conspecific with the holotype. The others, from Pasco (BMNH 12.1.15.8) and San Martín (BMNH 24.8.1.4, 27.1.1.174– 27.1.1.176) are examples of M. constantiae , with longer, fluffier fur at the base of the tail and short postprotocristae; none has palatine fenestrae nor any trace of postcingulids on the lower molars.

HABITATS: Nothing has been recorded about the habitats occupied by this species, but the typical vegetation of the eastern Andean slopes of central Peru between about 1000 and 2000 m is premontane or montane rainforest.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED (N = 7): Peru — Huánuco, Chinchavita ( BMNH 27.11.1.246, 27.11.1.248), Hacienda Porvenir ( FMNH 24139), Hacienda San Antonio ( FMNH 24137, 24138), Huachipa ( FMNH 24140); La Libertad, on trail to Ongón (LSUMZ 22324).

Figures

FIG. 17. Collection localities for examined specimens of Marmosa parda and M. rutteri. Numbers are keyed to entries in gazetteer (appendix 3).

FIG. 13. Dorsal and ventral cranial views (×1.75) of Marmosa rapposa (A, D; AMNH 210398), M. parda (B, E; FMNH 24139), and M. rutteri (C, F; MVZ 190331). All specimens are adult males.

FIG. 6. Maximum-likelihood (left) and Bayesian (right) phylogenetic trees inferred from concatenated sequences of six genes (CYTB, BRCA1, IRBP, OGT, SLC38, and Anon128). Numbers at nodes denote ML bootstrap support or Bayesian posterior probabilities. Outgroups are not shown. Dotted lines connect the same taxon across the two trees to highlight differences.

Tables

TABLE 8 Measurements (mm) and Weights (g) of Marmosa parda

	FMNH	FMNH	FMNH	FMNH	LSUMZ	BMNH	BMNH
	24139	24140a	24137	24138	22324	27.11.1.246	27.11.1.248
Sex	male	male	female	female	female	female	female
HBL	160b	171	147b	137b	177	159b	164b
LT	242b	235	223b	210b	225	266b	–
HF	28	28	“24”	26c	27c	27c	26b
Ear	–	–	–	–	26	24.5b	24b
CBL	43.6	43.6	41.6	40.0	41.1	40.6	–
NL	19.6	20.0	19.3	18.6	18.5	19.0	19.2
NB	6.2	7.0	6.5	5.8	6.0	6.5	6.2
LIB	8.7	8.9	8.2	7.9	8.1	8.0	8.0
LPB	8.0	8.7	8.1	7.9	8.3	7.8	7.5
ZB	25.4	24.8	24.1	23.4	22.6	23.1	23.0
PL	24.5	24.4	23.6	22.4	23.0	23.4	23.3
PB	14.1	13.8	13.4	14.2	13.7	14.0	14.9
MTR	16.7	17.7	16.4	16.5	16.8	17.0	17.0
LM	8.5	9.1	8.7	9.0	8.8	9.0	8.8
M1–3	7.2	7.5	7.4	7.6	7.2	7.4	7.3
WM3	2.7	2.7	2.9	2.8	2.9	2.9	3.0
Weight	–	–	–	–	82	–	–

a Holotype. b Measured by the British method. c Measured by R.S.V. from dried skin.