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 : 215

(6) A. bellus versus A. subtropicus Van Dyck and Crowther

Pelage: Antechinus bellus is a strikingly pale animal: pale to medium grey above, sometimes with a faun tinge, whereas A. subtropicus is uniformly brownish from head to rump.

External measurements: Antechinus bellus is larger than A. subtropicus in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for no external characters in males, but the following character in females: ear length. A. bellus is significantly larger than A. subtropicus for both males and females in hindfoot length and tail length, and for males in ear length (Table 2).

Skull: Antechinus bellus differs from A. subtropicus in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for the following 10 skull / dentary characters for males: IOW, IPV, NW, PPV, R-LC 1, R-LM 1, R-LM 2, R-LM 3, TC and BuL and the following 11 skull / dentary characters for females: IOW, IPV, M 2 W, PPV, R-LC 1, R-LM 1, R-LM 2, R-LM 3, HT, BuL and LML. Moreover, A. bellus has a range of other dentary features that significantly (p<0.01) differ from A. subtropicus — 12 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. subtropicus is found in closed subtropical forests of coastal eastern Australia ( Van Dyck and Crowther, 2000) from about Kyogle, NSW in the south to Gympie, Qld, in the north. A. bellus females have 10 nipples in the pouch, whereas A. subtropicus females have 8 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. subtropicus . Genetics: uncorrected pairwise difference at the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome B (CytB) between A. bellus and A. subtropicus is 13.8%.