Antechinus bellus (Thomas, 1904)

Dyck, Steve Van, 2013, Taxonomy and redescription of the Fawn Antechinus, Antechinus bellus (Thomas) (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae), Zootaxa 3613 (3), pp. 201-228 : 217

(10) A. bellus versus A. adustus

Pelage: Antechinus bellus is a strikingly pale animal: pale to medium grey above, sometimes with a faun tinge, whereas A. adustus has more uniformly dark brown fur with rusty tips on the head and back. A. bellus has white hind feet whereas A. adustus has dark grey feet.

External measurements: Antechinus bellus is larger than A. adustus in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for ear length in males and females. Moreover, A. bellus is significantly larger than A. adustus for body weight, head-body length, tail length and hindfoot length in males and head-body length in females (Table 2).

Skull: Antechinus bellus differs from A. adustus in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for the following 16 skull/dentary characters for males: BL, Dent, IOW, IPV, NW, R-LC 1, R-LM 1, R-LM 2, R-LM 3, ZW, HT, PL, SWR-LC 1 B, UML, BuL and LML and the following 16 skull/dentary characters for females: Dent, IBW, IOW, IPV, M 2 W, OBW, R-LM 1, R-LM 2, R-LM 3, ZW, HT, UML, HT-B, BuL, LML and M 2 W (refer Figures 8 and 9). Moreover, A. bellus has a range of other dentary features that significantly (p<0.01) differ from A. adustus – 9 variables for males and 10 variables for females, as shown in Table 2.

Other comments: Antechinus bellus is found in savannah woodlands of the Top End, Northern Territory, whereas A. adustus is found above 600 metres altitude in rainforest between the Bluewater Range and Mt Windsor Tableland in the wet tropics of north-east Qld. A. bellus females have 10 nipples in the pouch, whereas A. adustus females have 6 nipples in the pouch. A. bellus possesses a distally thickened and twisted supratragus of the ear rather than the simple, uncurled structure found in A. adustus . Genetics: uncorrected pairwise difference at the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome B (CytB) between A. bellus and A. adustus is 6.5%.