Dasypus beniensis Lönnberg, 1942

Feijó, Anderson & Cordeiro-Estrela, Pedro, 2016, Taxonomic revision of the Dasypus kappleri complex, with revalidations of Dasypus pastasae (Thomas, 1901) and Dasypus beniensis Lönnberg, 1942 (Cingulata, Dasypodidae), Zootaxa 4170 (2), pp. 271-297 : 286-288

Dasypus beniensis Lönnberg, 1942

Dasypus kappleri beniensis Lönnberg, 1942:49 (original description)

Holotype. Lönnberg (1942) mentioned a female adult specimen collected on 25 October 1937 by A.M. Olalla, but no collection number was cited. According to Wetzel & Mondolfi (1979:56), the holotype is number NHR 46 (Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm), nowadays recorded as NRM 583386 ( Figure 11 ).

Type locality. “[N]ear the confluence of Rio Madre de Dios with Rio Beni, Victoria, Bolivia ” ( Lönnberg, 1942:49). Anderson (1997:118) stated that the type locality is “ 3 km from the left bank of río Beni and about 9 km from confluence with río Madre de Dios ”.

Etymology. The name beniensis refers to the type locality.

Diagnosis. Externally, D. beniensis resembles D. pastasae with rough scales on the pelvic shield and flattened scales in the proximal rings of the tail. Cranially, it possesses four unique character states: a much less prominent lateral palatine crest, a convex posterior margin of the palatine, a well-developed and smoothly curved lacrimal bone, and a pentagonal and weakly developed tentorial process of the parietals.

Distribution. Dasypus beniensis is known from the right bank of the lower Amazon and Madeira rivers in Brazil and the right bank of Madre de Dios River in Bolivia ( Figure 12 ). These three major rivers appear to represent geographic barriers for this species to the north, the south barrier seems to be dry forests and savannas in Bolivia (Chaco) and Brazil (Caatinga and Cerrado) ( Pennington et al. 2000).

Measures. Dasypus beniensis is the largest of the three species in the Dasypus kappleri complex, with mean values that exceed those of D. kappleri and D. pastasae in 16 of the 24 cranial measures ( Table 4 ).

Specimens examined (locality numbers as in Figure 12 ). BOLIVIA: 1 (MNK sn). BRAZIL: 8 (MN 42853, MN 42854), 9 ( MZUSP 8950 ), 15 ( MPEG 12331 ), 16 ( UFMT 25 ), 17 ( MPEG 4676 , MPEG 4678 ), 18 ( MZUSP 19973 , MZUSP 19974 ), 19 ( MPEG 8481 ), 49 ( UFMT 302 ); and photos of the holotype (NRM 583386).

Figures

FIGURE 11. Dorsal, ventral and lateral view of the skull and lateral view of mandible of the holotype of Dasypus beniensis Lönnberg, 1942 (NRM 583386). Photo: Daniela Kalthoff.

FIGURE 12. Distribution of Dasypus beniensis Lönnberg, 1942. Yellow asterisk marks the type locality. Gray shading represents the moist broadleaf forest (Amazon biome) from central and northwestern of South America and dotted lines are the main rivers.