Mico melanurus
Creators: name: Russell A. Mittermeier
name: Anthony B. Rylands
name: Don E. Wilson
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Callitrichidae
Mico
Mico melanurus

description: 6.
Black-tailed Marmoset
Mico melanurus
French: Ouistiti a queue noire / German: Schwarzschwanz-Seidenaffchen / Spanish: Titi de cola negra
Taxonomy. Jacchus melanurus E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812,
Brazil. Restricted byJ. A. Allen in 1916 to Cuiaba, Mato Grosso.
A. Humboldtis often credited in various ways with the name ofthis species, but E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire is the rightful authority. Humboldt in 1812 (dated 1811 but actually published a year later) credited Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire for his 1812 publication in Tome 19 of Annales du Muséum d Histoire Naturelle, where this species’ name first appeared. Humboldt’s nomenclatural act was a “name combination” in which he combined the name given by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire with the genus Simia. In his 1977 treatise, P. Hershkovitz regarded this species to be a subspecies of M. argentatus (then considered to be a member of the genus Callithrix. C. argentata). There is some regional variation. In certain areas, individuals have chestnut on the back and the proximal parts of the arms. Others are much less lightly colored, with the mantle and arms being yellowish. Monotypic.
Distribution. CS Brazil, E Bolivia, and NW Paraguay, E of the Rio Mamoré in NE Bolivia, in Brazil E to the S of the Serra das Pacaas Novos and E of the upper Rio Ji-Parana in Rondonia State, into Mato Grosso State to the S of the headwaters of the rios Roosevelt and Aripuana, but extending N between the rios Aripuana and Juruena to the headwaters of the Rio Sucunduri (8° 21° S), to the S through the Pantanal of Mato Grosso and SE Bolivia into the NW Paraguayan Chaco.
Descriptive notes. Head—-body 22-24 cm,tail ¢.30-34 cm; weight ¢.330 g. The crown, hindpart of back, and hindlegs of the Black-tailed Marmoset are dark brown, and the underside is yellowish-white or fawn-white. The mantle is drab to grayish brown. The chest and neck are buffy to creamy, and the belly and inner sides of thighs and arms are buffy to ocherous orange. There is a distinct yellowish or orange hip patch and thigh stripe (front and inner thigh). The tail is black. The face is black, and ears are hairless and pigmented asis the face.
Habitat. Predominantly lowland rainforest and dry, vine, and savanna forest. The Black-tailed Marmoset prefers areas of forest with dense undergrowth. Individuals occasionally descend to the ground and cross open grassland to move from one clump of trees to another. It is found in tall humid forest in northern Mato Grosso and southern Rondonia, Brazil, and in flooded savanna of the Pantanal in the “cordilleras” (forest patches on raised ground). In Bolivia,it is found in primary and secondary humid forest, vine forest, “Chiquitano dry forest” (tropical dry broadleaf forest), gallery forest and forest patches in the flooded savannas. In Paraguay, the Black-tailed Marmoset occupies scrub forest, with a canopy of 5-10 m and tall forest, where they are more common, with a canopy of 20-25 m and emergent trees at 30 m, in the Chaco. They have been observed at elevations of450-1100 m in the region of the Serrania de Huanchaca in eastern Bolivia. There, they evidently prefer low-vine forest on well-drained soils on slopes of the escarpment.
Food and Feeding. The Black-tailed Marmoset eats small fruits, nectar, gums, and small animal prey.
Breeding. Minimum interbirth interval of the Black-tailed Marmoset is five months, and females resume their ovarian cycles within two weeks of giving birth. When mating, a male and female approach each other, and nuzzle and sniff each other’s genital areas, while tonguing and lip-smacking, which may continue during copulation. Soliciting is by approaching, lowering the head, and tonguing and lip-smacking. They coil theirtails when copulating. Infants are carried by the female during the first 1-6 days, after which the male and other group members also carry them. Infants are carried by the breeding pair for most of the first two weeks; older siblings become primary carriers after that. Time spent being carried drops when infants are 3—4 weeks old. At four weeks, infants begin to eat solid food. At eight weeks, infants are independent ofcarriers 90% ofthe time.
Activity patterns. There is no information available for this species.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Group sizes recorded in the Paraguayan Chaco were 5-14 individuals. Two groups recorded in the mountainous region of Huanchaca of eastern Bolivia had 7-12 individuals. Another eight groups seen in the same region had 4-9 individuals (mean 6-2, n = 5). Grooming and playing are the main social interactions. Young Black-tailed Marmosets begin grooming themselves at 3—4 weeks of age and other group members at 5-6 weeks. Group interactions produce aggressive/defensive postures and expressions, ear-flicking, the slit stare (eyelid halfclosed), “Arch bristle movement” (back arched,stiff posture, pilo-erection), and genital presenting with raised tails. The Black-tailed Marmoset has not been studied in the wild.
Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix II. Classified as Least Concern on The [UCN Red List. The Black-tailed Marmoset is known to occur in a number of protected areas: Noel Kempff Mercado, Kaa-lya del Gran Chaco, and Otuquis national parks, San Matias Integrated Management Natural Area, and Rios Blanco y Negro Wildlife Reserve in Bolivia; Pantanal Matogrossense and Chapada dos Guimaraes national parks and Taiama and Serra das Araras ecological stations in Brazil; and Defensores del Chaco National Park in Paraguay.
Bibliography. Allen (1916b), Alperin (1993), Braza & Garcia (1988), Brown & Rumiz (1986), Buchanan-Smith (1984), Hershkovitz (1977), Noronha, Silva et al. (2007, 2008), Noronha, Spironello & Ferreira (2008), Omedes (1979, 1981, 1985), Porcel et al. (2010), Rylands & de Faria (1993), Rylands et al. (1993, 2009), Stallings (1985), Stallings & Mittermeier (1983), Stevenson (1978a), Stevenson & Rylands (1988), Wallace, Painter, Rumiz & Taber (2000), Wallace, Painter & Taber (1998).
description: Published as part of Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson, 2013, Callitrichiade, pp. 262-346 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 3 Primates, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on pages 309-310, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5730714