Antechinus flavipes subsp. leucogaster

Baker, Andrew M. & Dyck, Steve Van, 2013, Taxonomy and redescription of the Yellow-footed Antechinus, Antechinus flavipes (Waterhouse) (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae), Zootaxa 3649 (1), pp. 1-62 : 33-37

(5) A. flavipes leucogaster versus A. bellus

Pelage: A. flavipes leucogaster has a grey head that merges to orange—fawn brown tonings on the rump, flanks and tail base, whereas A. bellus is a strikingly pale animal: pale to medium grey above, sometimes with a faun tinge, with pale grey chin, belly, hands and feet.

External measurements: A. f. leucogaster is smaller than A. bellus in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for tail-vent length and ear length in males and females. A. f. leucogaster is significantly smaller than A. bellus for head-body length and hind foot length in males and females (Table 4).

Skull: A. f. leucogaster differs from A. bellus in absolute measurement (i.e., with no overlap in ranges) for the following skull/dentary characters: in males—smaller R-LM 1, PL and LML, and in females—smaller R-LM 1, UML, BuL and LML. A. f. leucogaster has numerous other dentary features that significantly (p<0.01) differ from A. bellus —13 variables for males and 13 for females, as shown in Table 4.

Other Comments: A. f. leucogaster has a simple, uncurled supratragus on the external ear; A. bellus has a curled supratragus. A. f. leucogaster is found in south-western Western Australia, whereas A. bellus is restricted to the north wet-dry tropics of the Northern Territory. Genetics: uncorrected pairwise difference at the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome B (CytB) between A. f. leucogaster and A. bellus is 9.9%.