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 : 208

(1) A. bellus versus A. mysticus

Pelage: Antechinus bellus is a strikingly pale animal: pale to medium grey above, sometimes with a faun tinge, whereas A. mysticus has a greyish head that merges to buff-yellow on the rump and flanks.

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

Skull: Antechinus bellus differs from A. mysticus in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for the following 12 skull/dentary characters for males: Dent, IPV, R-LC 1, R-LM 1, R-LM 2, HT, PL, UML, BuL, LML, I 1 -P 3, and M 2 W, and the following 10 skull/dentary characters for females: IOW, M 2 W, R-LM 1, R-LM 2, HT, UML, BuL, LML, I 1 -P 3, and M 2 W (refer Figures 4–7). Moreover, A. bellus has a range of other dentary features that significantly (p<0.01) differ from A. mysticus —10 variables for males and 13 variables for females, as shown in Table 2.

Other comments: Antechinus bellus females have 10 pouch nipples, whereas A. mysticus females have 8 pouch nipples. A. bellus is found in savannah woodlands of the Top End, Northern Territory, whereas A. mysticus is found coastally from near the Qld/NSW border north to Mackay, mid-east Qld. A. bellus possesses a distally thickened and twisted supratragus of the ear rather than the simple, uncurled structure found in A. mysticus . Genetics: uncorrected pairwise range differences at the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome B (CytB) between A. bellus and A. mysticus are 10.2–10.4%.