Antechinus flavipes subsp. rubeculus (Van Dyck, 1982)

Baker, Andrew M. & Dyck, Steve Van, 2013, Taxonomy and redescription of the Yellow-footed Antechinus, Antechinus flavipes (Waterhouse) (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae), Zootaxa 3649 (1), pp. 1-62 : 50

(7) A. flavipes rubeculus versus A. leo

Pelage: A. flavipes rubeculus has a greyish head that merges to orange-red tonings on the rump and flanks, whereas A. leo is more uniformly cinnamon on the head and back with slightly darkened hair forming a mid-dorsal head stripe.

External measurements: A. f. rubeculus is smaller than A. leo in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for no external body measurements as far as we know. A. f. rubeculus is significantly smaller than A. leo for tail-vent length, hind foot length and ear length in males only (Table 6).

Skull: A. f. rubeculus differs from A. leo in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) in the following skull/dentary characters in females—smaller TC. A. f. rubeculus has several other dentary features that significantly (p<0.01) differ from A. leo —3 variables for males and 1 for females, as shown in Table 6.

Other Comments: A. f. rubeculus has a simple, uncurled supratragus on the external ear; A. leo has a curled supratragus. A. f. rubeculus is found in the wet tropics of north-east Queensland, whereas A. leo is restricted to far north Queensland, north of Princess Charlotte Bay on Cape York Peninsula. Genetics: uncorrected pairwise range differences at the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome B (CytB) between A. f. rubeculus and A. leo are 10.2–11.4%.