Coendou melanurus (Wagner, 1842)

Voss, Robert S., 2011, Revisionary Notes on Neotropical Porcupines (Rodentia: Erethizontidae) 3. An Annotated Checklist of the Species of Coendou Lacépède, 1799, American Museum Novitates 2011 (3720), pp. 1-1 : 1-

Coendou melanurus (Wagner, 1842)

Cercolabes melanurus Wagner, 1842: 360 ; type locality “Rio Negro [Barra]” (= Manaus ), Amazonas, Brazil .

Sphiggurus melanurus Gray, 1842: 262 ; type locality “ Brazil.”

Synetheres (Sphiggurus) melanurus: Trouessart, 1881: 184 (name combination).

Coendu melanurus: Trouessart, 1897: 622 (name combination).

Coendou (Sphiggurus) melanurus: Tate, 1935: 307 (name combination).

Coendou (Sphiggurus) insidiosus melanurus: Cabrera, 1961: 601 (name combination).

Sphiggurus melanura: Bonvicino et al., 2002 (epithet spelled with incorrect gender).

DISTRIBUTION: Apparently throughout the northeastern Amazonian lowlands (north of the Amazon and east of the Orinoco-Cassiquiare–Rio Negro), including eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, and northern Brazil (Voss et al., 2001: fig. 66).

REMARKS: This species was misidentified as or treated as a synonym or subspecies of Coendou insidiosus by Cabanis (1848), Cabrera (1961), Husson (1978), and Woods (1993), among others. Voss et al. (2001) provided a detailed description of C. melanurus and illustrated diagnostic comparisons with C. insidiosus . Reports of C. melanurus from Ecuador and Colombia (Emmons and Feer, 1997; Alberico et al., 1999; Tirira, 1999) were based on misidentified material of C. ichillus and C. pruinosus , respectively (Voss and da Silva, 2001).

SPECIMENS EXAMINED: See Voss et al. (2001: 136).