Leopardus braccatus

Nascimento, Fabio Oliveira Do, Cheng, Jilong & Feijó, Anderson, 2021, Taxonomic revision of the pampas cat Leopardus colocola complex (Carnivora: Felidae): an integrative approach, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 191, pp. 575-611 : 596-598

publication ID

0024-4082

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/0380F65B-4104-6424-CFBD-BEDDFAB5FCBF

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Leopardus braccatus
status

 

LEOPARDUS BRACCATUS View in CoL ( COPE, 1889)

( FIG. 12)

Pantanal cat or Brazilian pampas cat.

Felis braccata Cope, 1889: 146 ; type locality: ‘province of Rio Grande do Sul, or Matto Grosso’, restricted to ‘Chapada dos Guimarães’ (State of Mato Grosso, Brazil) by J. A. Allen (1919).

[ Felis (Catopuma) ] braccata: Trouessart, 1897: 364 ; name combination.

Lynchailurus pajeros braccatus: Allen, 1919 ; name combination.

[ Felis View in CoL (] Mungofelis [) braccata ]: Antonius, 1933: 13; name combination.

L [ynchailurus]. colocolus braccatus: Cabrera, 1940: 12 View in CoL ; name combination; unjustified emendation of colocola of Molina.

Lynchailurus (Lynch [ailurus].) pajeros View in CoL braccatus: Schwangart, 1941: 29 View in CoL ; part; name combination.

[ Lynchailurus (Lynch [ailurus].) pajeros View in CoL braccatus View in CoL ] Phase C: Schwangart, 1941: 32; name combination.

Felis View in CoL [( Lynchailurus )] colocolo View in CoL braccata: Cabrera, 1958: 275 ; name combination.

F [elis]. colocola braccata: Ximénez, 1961: 6 ; name combination.

Oncifelis (Lynchailurus) pajeros: Hemmer, 1978: 77 ; part; name combination.

Lynchailurus braccatus: García-Perea, 1994: 25 ; part.

L [ynchailurus]. b [raccatus]. braccatus: García-Perea, 1994: 25 ; name combination.

Leopardus braccatus: Wozencraft, 2005: 537 View in CoL ; part; name combination.

Leopardus colocola: Kitchener, Breitenmoser-Würsten, Eizirik, Gentry, Werdelin, Wilting, Yamaguchi,

Abramov, Christiansen, Driscoll, Duckworth, Johnson, Luo, Meijaard, O’Donoghue, Sanderson, Seymour, Bruford, Groves, Hoffmann, Nowell, Timmons & Tobe, 2017: 51; part; name combination.

Leopardus colocola braccatus: Kitchener, Breitenmoser-Würsten, Eizirik, Gentry, Werdelin, Wilting, Yamaguchi, Abramov, Christiansen, Driscoll, Duckworth, Johnson, Luo, Meijaard, O’Donoghue, Sanderson, Seymour, Bruford, Groves, Hoffmann, Nowell, Timmons & Tobe, 2017: 53 View in CoL ; part; name combination.

Type material: AMNH354 About AMNH , skull and skin of an adult male collected by Herbert H. Smith in November 1884 .

Type locality: ‘province of Rio Grande do Sul, or Matto Grosso’ ( Brazil) ( Cope 1889: 146). Later restricted as ‘Chapada dos Guimarães’ by J. A. Allen (1919).

Diagnosis: Leopardus braccatus is distinguished by a brown background colour of the forehead, crown and nape; mandible and medial infranasal area white or pale yellowish brown; spinal crest dark brown to black. The sides of the body have a brown colour with indistinct oblique slightly darker brown lines. Feet are entirely blackish. The tail is uniform brownish without rings and with a black tip. P2 is present in most specimens.

Geographical distribution: The species occurs in open habitats of central Brazil (from Pantanal to southwestern Piauí in north-eastern Brazil), Paraguay, Bolivian lowlands (records from the Department of Beni) and northern Argentina (record from the Province of Formosa) ( García-Perea, 1994; Silveira, 1995; Bagno et al., 2004; Chebez et al., 2008; Luque et al., 2012; Nascimento et al., 2016) ( Fig. 9; Supporting Information, Appendix S3, Fig. S7).

Taxonomic notes: Leopardus braccatus has been regarded either as a subspecies of Le. colocola ( Cabrera, 1940, 1958; Ximénez, 1961; Ximénez, 1970; Pecon-Slattery et al., 1994, 2000, 2004; Masuda et al., 1996; Johnson & O’Brien, 1997; Eizirik et al., 1998; Pecon-Slattery & O’Brien, 1998; Johnson et al., 1999; Napolitano et al., 2008; Cossíos et al., 2009; Sunquist & Sunquist, 2009; Kitchener et al., 2017) or of L. pajeros ( Allen, 1919; Pocock, 1941; Schwangart, 1941). García- Perea (1994) recognized it as a polytypic species with two subspecies, Ly. b. braccatus from central Brazil and Paraguay and Ly. b. munoai from southern Brazil and Uruguay. Our study shows that these two subspecies are warranted recognition at the species level. Schwangart (1941) recognized three phases for his Lynchailurus (Lynchailurus) pajeros braccata , which distinguished themselves from each other mainly by the pattern of darkening of the feet: Phase A, ‘without blackening of the feet’, Phase B, ‘intermediate stage for the blackening of the feet’ and Phase C, ‘perfect blackening of the feet’. However, only Schwangart’s Phase C actually represents Le. braccatus , whereas the two former correspond, respectively, to Le. pajeros and Le. munoai .

Remarks: Despite young individuals having the overall brown body colour and entirely black feet similar to adults, they show conspicuous dark markings arranged in the scapuloinguinal direction along the flanks, which fades in adults. This pattern was observed by us in the specimen MNRJ 4868 from Maracaju, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil (Supporting Information, Appendix S4) and by Silveira (1995), who observed conspicuous irregular black bands over the body of a 75 days old individual, that disappeared completely when it reached 8 months old. Beviglieri et al. (2018) provided photos of a live late juvenile, in which it is possible to observe some visible oblique bands on the side of the animal. Melanistic specimens of Le. braccatus have been reported in the wild ( Silveira et al., 2005; Parque Nacional das Emas, Goiás, Brazil), in captivity ( Monticelli & Marques, 2015) and we also observed one in a museum collection ( MZUSP 7670, from Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil).

MNRJ

Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro

MZUSP

Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de Sao Paulo

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Carnivora

Family

Felidae

Genus

Leopardus

Loc

Leopardus braccatus

Nascimento, Fabio Oliveira Do, Cheng, Jilong & Feijó, Anderson 2021
2021
Loc

Leopardus colocola braccatus: Kitchener, Breitenmoser-Würsten, Eizirik, Gentry, Werdelin, Wilting, Yamaguchi, Abramov, Christiansen, Driscoll, Duckworth, Johnson, Luo, Meijaard, O’Donoghue, Sanderson, Seymour, Bruford, Groves, Hoffmann, Nowell, Timmons & Tobe, 2017: 53

Kitchener AC & Breitenmoser-Wursten C & Eizirik E & Gentry A & Werdelin L & Wilting A & Yamaguchi N & Abramov AV & Christiansen P & Driscoll C & Duckworth JW & Johnson W & Luo S-J & Meijaard E & O'Donoghue P & Sanderson J & Seymour K & Bruford M & Groves C & Hoffmann M & Nowell K & Timmons Z & Tobe S 2017: 53
2017
Loc

Leopardus braccatus: Wozencraft, 2005: 537

Wozencraft WC 2005: 537
2005
Loc

Lynchailurus braccatus: García-Perea, 1994: 25

Garcia-Perea R 1994: 25
1994
Loc

Oncifelis (Lynchailurus) pajeros: Hemmer, 1978: 77

Hemmer H 1978: 77
1978
Loc

Felis

Cabrera A 1958: 275
1958
Loc

Lynchailurus

Schwangart F 1941: 29
1941
Loc

Lynchailurus

Schwangart F 1941: 32
1941
Loc

Felis

Antonius WO 1933: 13
1933
Loc

Felis (Catopuma)

Trouessart E-L 1897: 364
1897
Loc

Felis braccata

Cope ED 1889: 146
1889
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