Makalata macrura (Wagner, 1842)

PATTON, JAMES L., DA SILVA, MARIA NAZARETH F. & MALCOLM, JAY R., 2000, Mammals Of The Rio Juruá And The Evolutionary And Ecological Diversification Of Amazonia, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2000 (244), pp. 1-306 : 188-190

Makalata macrura (Wagner, 1842)

TYPE LOCALITY: Borba, Rio Madeira Amazonas, Brazil (Emmons, 1993).

DESCRIPTION: As for the genus, above, with a generally dark overall coloration and graybrown venter.

SELECTED MEASUREMENTS:: We give the mean, standard errors, and range of external and cranial measurements in table 54.

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT: Specimens are available from only four localities along the central and lower regions of the Rio Jurua´ Nova Empresa (locality 8), near Miranda (locality i), opposite Altamira (locality 10), and Colocação Vira­Volta (locality 14). Three of the five specimens collected were obtained in canopy platform traps, one was shot in a tree at night, and the fifth was found swimming in the river during the day, perhaps having been dropped by a raptor. Those trapped or shot were taken in seasonally inundated forest (várzea or igapó), which is consistent both with the suggestion of Emmons and Feer (1997) and our observations elsewhere within the central Amazon. It is unclear whether our trapping program simply failed to ascertain the true abundance of this species, or whether, in fact, M. macrura is rare throughout the Rio Jurua´. Emmons and Feer (1997) suggested that the species is locally common. This species has the especially large caecum and long colon suggestive of a folivorous diet, and thus they may not have been attracted by the baits we used.

REPRODUCTION: The single adult female taken in September, was pregnant, with one

fetus. A second female was young with M3 still unerupted; it was nulliparous. All three males were adult with enlarged testes; they were taken in the months of September, November, and May.

COMMENTS: The number of specimens from the Rio Juruá is inadequate for any analysis of geographic variation in morphology, but the material available does not suggest any substantive differentiation among populations along the river. However, the single specimen taken from the Mouth region of the river differed by 5.9% in cytochromeb sequence (399 bp) from those specimens from the central part of the river basin (see da Silva and Patton, 1993).

SPECIMENS EXAMINED (n = 8): (8) 1m, 1f — JLP 15394, MNFS 465; (i) 1f — JLP 15214; (10) 1m — MNFS 894; (14) 1m — MNFS 1717. Specimens from Royal Natural History Museum, Stockholm (see Patterson 1992): João Pessoa [= Eirunepe´] (1m, 2f 2117, 2163, 2333) .

SUBFAMILY EUMYSOPINAE RUSCONI, 1935