Coendou ichillus Voss and da Silva, 2001

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 : 112

Coendou ichillus Voss and da Silva, 2001

Figure 46

VOUCHER MATERIAL: None.

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: El Chino ( Carter, 2023).

IDENTIFICATION: Originally described from eastern Ecuadorean material, Coendou ichillus has subsequently been reported from scattered sites throughout western Amazonia (e.g., Gregory et al., 2015; Ramírez-Chaves et al., 2016, 2020; Menezes et al., 2020). This taxon is easily distinguished in the field from its broadly sympatric congener C. longicaudatus (formerly C. prehensilis ; see below) by its much smaller adult size and by several conspicuous external traits (table 33). Should skeletal material eventually be collected in our region, cranial comparisons are equally diagnostic. Among other qualitative differences, C. ichillus has a dorsally flattened skull ( Voss and da Silva, 2001: figs. 10, 11), whereas C. longicaudatus has a conspicuously convex dorsal cranial profile due to its hugely inflated frontal sinuses (fig. 47). Additionally, cranial measurements of C. ichillus do not overlap those of C. longicaudatus : condyloincisive length, for example, is 59–64 mm in the former species versus 78–97 mm in the latter, and crown length of the maxillary toothrow is 14–15 mm versus 19–22 mm ( Voss and da Silva, 2001; Voss, 2010). Weight data is unavailable for this species.

ETHNOBIOLOGY: Although a few Matses hunters have reported seeing a small porcupine that might correspond to this species, they do not recognize it as a distinct species.

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

REMARKS: As reported by Carter (2023; personal commun.), two solitary individuals of Coendou ichillus were located at night using thermal imaging technology in the subcanopy of seasonally flooded primary forest near Tahuayo Lodge, an ecotourist facility about 2 km WSW of El Chino.