45(898):12–17 Cabassous centralis (Cingulata: Dasypodidae) VIRGINIA HAYSSEN,JORGE ORTEGA,ALBERTO MORALES-LEYVA, AND NORBERTO MARTI´NEZ-MENDEZ Department of Biology, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063, USA; [email protected] (VH) Laboratorio de Ictiologı´ayLimnologı´a, Posgrado en Ciencias Quimicobiolo´gicas, Departamento de Zoologı´a, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biolo´gicas, Instituto Polite´cnico Nacional, Prolongacio´n de Carpio y Plan de Ayala s/n, Col. Sto. Tomas, 11340, Me´xico, Distrito Federal, Me´xico; [email protected] (JO), [email protected] (AM-L), [email protected]. mx (NM-M) Abstract: Cabassous centralis (northern naked-tailed armadillo) is a small armadillo with a slender tail. The distinctive tail has widely spaced, thin plates that are gray-pink in color. This fossorial armadillo occurs in diverse tropical habitats and has a distributional range from southern Mexico, through Central America, and into northern South America (Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador). C. centralis is listed as ‘‘Least Concern’’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and is rare everywhere. Key words: Edentata, edentate, Neotropical, northern naked-tailed armadillo, Xenarthra Ó 30 May 2013 American Society of Mammalogists Synonymy completed 11 May 2012 DOI: 10.1644/898.1 www.mammalogy.org Cabassous centralis (Miller, 1899) Cabassous hispidus: Neveu-Lemaire and Grandidier, Northern Naked-tailed Armadillo 1911:106, footnote. Not Dasypus hispidus Burmeister, 1854. Dasypus gymnurus: Frantzius, 1869:309. Not Tatus gymnu- [Cabassous] lugubris: Yepes, 1928:467 [page 7 of reprint rus Olfers, 1818. separate]. Part; not Ziphila lugubris Gray, 1873. X[enurus]. hispidus: True, 1896:345. Not Dasypus hispidus Cabassous lugubris: Moeller, 1968:420. Part; not Ziphila Burmeister, 1854. lugubris Gray, 1873. Dasypus [Xenurus] hispidus True, 1896:346. Not Dasypus hispidus Burmeister, 1854. CONTEXT AND CONTENT. Order Cingulata, family Dasypo- Dasypus gymnurus: Alfaro, 1897:46. Not Tatus gymnurus didae, subfamily Tolypeutinae, tribe Priodontini. Synonymy Olfers, 1818. Xenurus gymnurus: J. A. Allen, 1897:43. Not Tatus gymnurus Olfers, 1818. [Lysiurus (Lysiurus)] unicinctus: Trouessart, 1898:1146. Part; not Dasypus unicinctus Linnaeus, 1758. [Lysiurus (Lysiurus)] hispidus: Trouessart, 1898:1147. Part; not Dasypus hispidus Burmeister, 1854. Tatoua (Ziphila) centralis Miller, 1899:4. Type locality ‘‘Chamelecon, [Corte´s,] Honduras.’’ Tatoua (Ziphila) lugubris: Miller, 1899:6. Not Ziphila lugubris Gray, 1873. C[abassous]. (Ziphila) centralis: Palmer, 1899:72. Name combination. Cabassous hispidus: Bangs, 1900:89. Not Dasypus hispidus Burmeister, 1854. Cabassous (Ziphila) lugubris: J. A. Allen, 1904:421. Not Ziphila lugubris Gray, 1873. Fig. 1.—A male Cabassous centralis from Centro de Recepcio´ny [Cabassous (Ziphila)] lugubris: Trouessart, 1905:821. Part; Rehabilitacio´n de Fauna Silvestre in Colombia. Used with not Ziphila lugubris Gray, 1873. permission of the photographer Alba Lucı´a Morales. 45(898)—Cabassous centralis MAMMALIAN SPECIES 13 modified from Gardner (2005) and Wetzel et al. (2008). C. centralis is monotypic (Wetzel et al. 2008). NOMENCLATURAL NOTES. The generic name, Cabassous,is from the native language Galibi (French Guiana), derived from capocou meaning armadillo. The species name, centralis, refers to the Central American (Honduras) origin of the holotype (Tirira 2004). Other common names are armadillo hediondo, armadillo rabo de carne de occidente, armadillo rabo de puerco, armadillo zopilote, armado de zopilote, cabasu´, cachicamo morrocoy, cucuso, cusuco venenoso, cuspa montan˜era zuliana, cuspita, douro´, morro- coy, No¨rdliches Nacktschwanz-Gu¨rteltier, pitero de un˜a, rabo de carne, rabo de molle, ta´kan ta´kan, tatu´-aı´, tatu´ de rabo molle, timba, tumbo, tumbo armado, and wai-wech (True 1896; Wetzel 1982; Emmons and Feer 1990; Superina and Aguiar 2006). DIAGNOSIS Cabassous centralis (Fig. 1) is similar to C. unicinctus (southern naked-tailed armadillo) but their ranges do not overlap: C. centralis occurs west of the Andes and C. unicinctus occurs east of the Andes. C. centralis differs from C. unicinctus in having the external surface of pinna without scales. The elongate, oval teeth are similar to those of C. tatouay (greater naked-tail armadillo), but in C. centralis the long axis of midposterior teeth may be diagonal to long axis of the skull (Wetzel 1985). Posterior surface of pinna is naked in C. centralis, whereas in other species the pinna is partially or completely scaled. Interorbital (24.3 mm) and zygomatic (40.8 mm) widths are smaller in C. centralis than in C. tatouay (33.8 and 56.3, respectively) and C. unicinctus (26.6 and 44.7, respectively—Wetzel 1980). GENERAL CHARACTERS A small armadillo with a slender skull (Fig. 2), naked cheeks and pinnae, mediolaterally compressed teeth, and Fig. 2.—Dorsal, ventral, and lateral views of skull and lateral view scutes on the first 2 complete rows of scapular shield that are of mandible of an adult Cabassous centralis (26621, Instituto de much wider than long (Wetzel 1980). Counts of scutes (SD, Biologı´a, Universidad Nacional Auto´noma de Me´xico) from Selva n) are: cephalic shield, 35.3 (4.3, 23); 1st complete band of Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico. Greatest length of skull is 77.6 mm. scapular shield, 18.1 (1.3, 16); last band of scapular shield, Photographs provided by Linda Saldan˜a, Daniela Labastida, and Fernanda Caciano. 27.2 (1.6, 19); 3rd movable band, 28.3 (1.9, 19); 4th movable band, 28.6 (1.5, 21); 1st band of pelvic shield, 25.9 (0.9, 18); last band of pelvic shield, 8.3 (0.9, 18); total number of movable bands, 12.1 (0.6, 22—Wetzel 1980). length of ear, 31, 33, 32, 32, 37, —. Ranges (mm) of external External measurements (mm) for 6 adult Cabassous measurements from the Neotropics were: length of head and centralis (2 females, 4 males, respectively) in the National body, 305–417; length of tail, 106–183; length of hind foot, Museum of Natural History (formerly the United States National Museum [USNM]) were: length of head and body, 60–76; length of ear, 27–62; mass, 2–3.5 kg (True 1896; 336, 337, 335, 363, 378, 400; length of tail, 164, 145, 134, Bangs 1900; Allen 1904; Meritt 1985; Wetzel 1985; Emmons 160, 183, 173; length of hind foot, 69, 62, 61, 60, 74, 79; and Feer 1990; Carrillo and Wong 1992). 14 MAMMALIAN SPECIES 45(898)—Cabassous centralis Mean cranial measurements (mm) for 7 adult C. centralis in the USNM and ranges (in parentheses) from additional references (True 1896; Allen 1904; Wetzel 1980) were: skull: greatest length, 79.1 (72.09–83.3); width across zygoma at postorbital process, 41.8 (39.2–45.0); length of upper toothrow, 28.7 (26.6–30.0); posterior margin of last molar to tip of premaxilla, 48.2 (45.0–51.2); condylobasal length, 78.0 (72.3–83.1); rostral length, 36.9 (33.6–39.0); palatal length, 45.1 (41.9–48.1); postrostral length, 41.2 (37.5–44.5); palatal width, 11.4 (10.2–12.3); anterior rostral width, 11.6 (10.4–13.8); interlacrimal width, 33.3 (30.9– 36.4); interorbital width, 24.3 (23.6–25.6); zygomatic width, 40.8 (37.4–43.7); mastoidal width, 37.0 (33.6–41.0); height of cranium, 32.2 (30.1–34.0); mandible: greatest length, 60.2 (55.0–63.4); width from angle to coronoid, 17.8 (16.0–19.7); length of lower toothrow, 26.0 (24.6–27.7); posterior margin of last molar to tip of mandible, 42.0 (38.5–43.8). Means of selected limb measurements (mm) for 2 C. centralis were: humeral length, 54.2; proximal humeral length, 39.4; ulnar length, 57.6; olecranon length, 27.4; functional femoral length, 61.5; proximal femur length, 28.4; leg length, 51.2; and midleg width, 20 (Vizcaı´no and Milne 2002). Fig. 3.—Distribution map of Cabassous centralis modified from Mean tooth lengths and widths (mm), respectively, with Wetzel et al. (2008). parenthetical ranges were: maxillary teeth: 4th, 2.9 (2.4–3.3), 2.3 (2.1–2.6); 5th, 3.0 (2.5–3.4), 2.6 (2.3–3.0); 6th, 2.8 (2.4– moveable bands (Emmons and Feer 1990). The slender tail 3.2), 2.8 (2.4–3.2); 7th, 2.7 (2.2–3.4), 2.7 (2.3–3.2); mandib- is distinctive with widely spaced, thin plates with a pinkish ular teeth: 5th, 3.1 (2.7–3.5), 2.6 (2.2–3.0); 6th, 3.1 (2.4–3.8), gray color (Eisenberg 1989). Upperparts of the back mostly 2.7 (2.4–3.2); 7th, 2.7 (1.9–3.8), 2.5 (1.8–2.9—Wetzel 1980). dark gray-brown but the edge of the carapace is yellowish (Eisenberg 1989; Reid 1997). Tufts of hair on the ventrum are in about 20 regular, transverse rows (True 1896). DISTRIBUTION Cabassous centralis has no incisors or canines and 7–10 upper and 7–9 lower uniform cheek teeth (8 specimens at the Cabassous centralis occurs from sea level up to 2,000 m, USNM—True 1896). The long tongue can be ‘‘extruded to a and with a 3,018-m record from Antioquia Department in great length when feeding’’ (Eisenberg 1989:63). The head of Colombia (Sa´nchez et al. 2004; Dı´az-N. and Sa´nchez- the mallei of C. centralis is globose and the anterior process Giraldo 2008). C. centralis ranges from southern Mexico, is noticeably thickened (Patterson et al. 1992). through Central America, into South America where it The diploid chromosome number (2n) is 62 and the occurs ‘‘from northern Colombia (including northern inter- fundamental number (FN) is 74 (Benirschke et al. 1969; Hsu Andean valleys) east of the Choco´ region and north of the and Benirschke 1969).