Mus tomentosus Lichtenstein, 1830

Garbino, Guilherme S. T. & Nogueira, Marcelo R., 2017, On the mammals collected by Friedrich Sellow in Brazil and Uruguay (1814 – 1831), with special reference to the types and their provenance, Zootaxa 4221 (2), pp. 172-190 : 179

Mus tomentosus Lichtenstein, 1830 (ZMB_MAM 1699)

Lichtenstein (1830), when describing Mus tomentosus (currently Kunsia tomensotus ), affirmed that the type specimen ( ZMB _MAM 1699, skin, skull) came from forested areas along the Rio Uruguay . The catalog entry and the specimen label read “ Uruguay ” as the locality ( Fig. 5 ). Hershkovitz (1966:120) further restricted the type locality by stating: “There is no good reason for believing that the type of Mus tomentosus was collected in any place other than the one given by Lichtenstein and I hereby restrict it to the Rio Uruguay in southeastern Brazil ” .

It is plausible to assume that Kunsia tomentosus distribution is associated with the open and transitional woodland formations of South America ( Bezerra et al. 2007). Therefore , the restriction made by Hershkovitz (1966), to a region covered in the 19th century by seasonal and humid forests ( Fig. 1 ), is not likely to be the correct collecting type locality. Bezerra et al. (2007) and Terán et al. (2008) defined the distribution of K. tomentosus as the Cerrado of central and west–central Brazil ; eastern, northeastern, and northwestern Bolivia; and southeastern Brazil, in the state of Minas Gerais. From these areas, Sellow collected in the open Cerrado of the state of Minas Gerais. Bezerra et al. (2007), Pardiñas et al. (2008) and Bezerra (2015) also acknowledge that the type locality, as currently understood, lies more than 1000 km from the nearest suitable habitat. Pardiñas et al. (2008) stated that the type locality may be incorrect and that the type specimen probably came from southeastern Brazil .

Recent paleontological studies, however, have found osteological remains of K. tomentosus in Rio Grande do Sul, indicating that the species may have been recently extirpated from the area ( Stutz et al. 2015). Due to these findings, we keep the type locality of K. tomentosus as Rio Uruguay , Rio Grande do Sul, and suggest that the species may still be present in Rio Grande do Sul .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Localities traveled by Friedrich Sellow between 1814 and 1831, and main vegetation types along the route. For locality coordinates, see Gazetteer in Appendix I.

FIGURE 5. Page of ZMB mammal collection catalog, handwritten by Wilhelm Peters, with the entry for the types of Thaptomys nigrita (ZMB _ MAM 1698) and Kunsia tomentosus (ZMB _ MAM 1699).