Sphiggurus spinosus (F. Cuvier)

D’Elía, Guillermo, Mora, Ismael, Myers, Phil & Owen, Robert D., 2008, New and noteworthy records of Rodentia (Erethizontidae, Sciuridae, and Cricetidae) from Paraguay, Zootaxa 1784, pp. 39-57 : 52

Sphiggurus spinosus (F. Cuvier)

Table 1

Type Locality: Paraguay, along the Paraná River.

Distribution: Northeast Argentina, southeastern Brazil, Paraguay, northeastern Uruguay.

New records: CAAZAPA: 17) Estancia Dos Marías, 12.2 Km SSO de las casas, Costa del Río Tebicuary, 26º 47.719’ S 56º 32.979´W (UMMZ 174975). ITAPUA: 18) Estancia San Isidro, 6.6 km NE of houses, 26º 31.372’ S, 55º 51.767´W (GD 252). Figure 1 .

Taxonomy: Sphiggurus is a taxon in need of revision. Problems range from its distinction from Coendou Lacépède to the limits of its species, including S. spinosus . Although morphologically Sphiggurus is similar to Coendou (e.g., Handley & Pine 1992; but see Massoia & Vaccaro 1991), recent phylogenetic analysis of molecular data indicates that both constitute independent lineages ( Bonvicino et al. 2002).

Comments: To our knowledge, these specimens constitute the first records corroborated by voucher specimens for these departments of the Paraguayan Oriental Region. The specimen from Caazapá was collected in riparian forest of the Tebicuary River; the specimen from Itapúa was caught by hand in an artificial prairie about 300 m from the closest forest island.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map of Paraguay indicating the localities where the specimens reported here were collected. Locality numbers refer to those of the text.