Proechimys kulinae da Silva, 1998

Voss, Robert S., Fleck, David W. & Jansa, Sharon A., 2019, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 5. Rodents, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2024 (466), pp. 1-180 : 140-141

Proechimys kulinae da Silva, 1998

Figures 56C, 56F

VOUCHER MATERIAL (N = 119): Jenaro Herrera (AMNH 276707, 276708; MUSM 23826, 23828, 23832), Nuevo San Juan (AMNH 272705, 272714; MUSM 11300, 13340, 13348), San Pedro (MVZ 198489; UF 30551, 30573, 30578, 30579, 30582, 30583, 30586, 30588, 30592–30595, 30597, 30598, 30600, 30601, 30606, 30607, 30611–30614, 30616–30618, 30621–30624, 30627, 30630–30636, 30638, 30640–30646, 30648–30650, 30652, 30653, 30655, 30662– 30690, 30692–30697, 30699, 30701–30709, 30711, 30712, 30714–30719, 30765, 30766), Santa Cecilia (FMNH 87240), Siete de Julio (UF 30710). Additionally, Medina et al. (2015) reported specimens from Quebrada Sábalo that we have not examined.

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: Field identifications of this species cannot be accepted as valid without supporting voucher material.

IDENTIFICATION: Proechimys kulinae is a distinctively small species of spiny rat that does not overlap (or only minimally overlaps) other local species in several external and craniodental dimensions, notably including length of the hind foot and length of the maxillary toothrow (table 40). The dorsal pelage is unremarkably brownish, and the ventral pelage is abruptly white from chin to anus. The ventral fur is thin and feels harsh to the touch because it consists mostly of soft spines with only a few wool hairs mixed among them. The hind foot is mostly covered with whitish hairs, but in some specimens (e.g., AMNH 276707, MUSM 23826) it is bicolored, with abruptly darker hairs over the lateral metatarsals. The nine bacula we examined resemble the morphology illustrated by da Silva et al. (1998: fig. 6): they are moderately long (7.7 mm on average), slender (2.3 mm in basal width), and lack well-developed distal processes, although our specimens have a somewhat larger basal-width-to-length ratio (mean = 0.30, range = 0.26–0.37) than the six examples they measured.

Distinctive craniodental features of Proechimys kulinae include parallel-sided, ovate, or weakly lyrate incisive foramina that have complete septa in most of the specimens we examined. The premaxillary portion of the incisive septum is usually short, and the maxillary portion is usually weakly keeled (never strongly keeled as in P. brevicauda ); the vomer is usually concealed, but it is exposed in a few specimens. The anterior palate lacks strong relief in some specimens (e.g., AMNH 272707, 272714), but it is distinctly grooved-and-ridged in others (MUSM 11300, MVZ 198489). The floor of the infraorbital foramen is smooth, apparently never with a well-developed canal for the infraorbital nerve. The mesopterygoid fossa penetrates deeply between the third molars and sometimes extends to or between the second molars (mean score for mesopterygoid penetration = 3.5, range = 3–4). A distinctive cranial trait is the usual presence of a long extension of the temporal crest onto the parietal. There are never more than three labial folds on any upper cheektooth, but M3 occasionally has only two labial folds, so the sample formula for our material is 3-3-3-3(2).

Our specimens closely resemble the original description of Proechimys kulinae provided by da Silva (1998), and measurements of our specimens broadly overlap those of her type series from the Rio Juruá. The results of phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequence data obtained from two of our specimens (AMNH 272714, MUSM 123828) are likewise consistent with our specimen identifications ( Dalapicolla, 2024: appendix E, fig. S5).

ETHNOBIOLOGY: The Matses have no special name for this species.

MATSES NATURAL HISTORY: No interviews were focused on this species.

REMARKS: Six specimens of Proechimys kulinae are accompanied by habitat data from our region. Of these, two were taken in primary upland forest near Nuevo San Juan, and four were taken in primary white-sand forest near Jenaro Herrera ; all were trapped on the ground. According to Valqui (2001) —most of whose voucher specimens (at the UF) were correctly identified—this species “occurs exclusively in primary terra firme forests, where it is the most abundant species.”