Antechinus flavipes subsp. leucogaster

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 : 38

(7) A. flavipes leucogaster versus A. leo

Pelage: A. flavipes leucogaster has a grey head that merges to orange—fawn brown tonings on the rump, flanks and tail base, 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. leucogaster is smaller than A. leo in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for body weight, head-body length and hind foot length in males and in hind foot length in females. A. f. leucogaster is significantly smaller than A. leo for tail-vent length and ear length in males and in body weight, head-body length and tail-vent length in females (Table 4).

Skull: A. f. leucogaster differs from A. leo in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) in the following skull/dentary characters: in males—smaller Dent, M 2 W, R-LC 1, PL, SWR-LC 1 B, PML, UML, LML and M 2 W; and in females—smaller BL, Dent, IBW, IOW, M 2 W, R-LC 1, PL, SWR-LC 1 B, TC, PML, UML, I 1 -P 3, LML and M 2 W. A. f. leucogaster has numerous other dentary features that significantly (p<0.01) differ from A. leo —14 variables for males and 11 for females, as shown in Table 4.

Other Comments: A. f. leucogaster has a simple, uncurled supratragus on the external ear; A. leo has a curled supratragus. A. f. leucogaster is found in south-western Western Australia, 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. leucogaster and A. leo are 10.9–11.4%.