Crocidura pseudorhoditis Esselstyn &amp; Achmadi &amp; Handika &amp; Swanson &amp; Giarla &amp; Rowe 2021, new species
Creators: name: Esselstyn, Jacob A.
name: Achmadi, Anang S.
name: Handika, Heru
name: Swanson, Mark T.
name: Giarla, Thomas C.
name: Rowe, Kevin C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Soricomorpha
Soricidae
Crocidura
Crocidura pseudorhoditis

description: <i>Crocidura pseudorhoditis</i>, new species LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank. org:act: 980DF37A-D8F0-4DBF-877C- A11C04F55FC1 <i>Crocidura rhoditis</i> Ruedi, 1995: 255. Misidentification. 11.5 Mt. Ambang <i>Crocidura rhoditis</i> Esselstyn et al., 2019: 1716. Misidentification. BREADTH10.5 11 Sulawesi-wide HOLOTYPE: MZB 43002 (= LSUMZ 39310), an adult female, collected on 22 February 2016 by H. Handika. The specimen was prepared as a cleaned skull and skeleton, study skin, stomach, intestine, and frozen tissues. External measurements from the type are 148 mm × 70 mm × 16 mm × 11 mm = 11 g. The voucher specimen and a tissue sample will be permanently curated at MZB, with another tissue sample retained at LSUMZ. BRAINCASE 9.5 10 9 N = 5 N = 27 N = 35 N = 76 N = 10 N = 20 <i>ralis</i> <i>aust C.</i> <i>pallida</i> <i>C.</i> <i>rhoditis</i> <i>C.</i> <i>pseudorhoditis</i> <i>C.</i> SPECIES TYPE LOCALITY: Indonesia; Sulawesi Utara; Bolaang Mondgondow, Passi Timur; Insil; Mt. Ambang, near Lake Aliyah; 0.76385° N, 124.41188° E, 1481 m elevation. ETYMOLOGY: We combine “pseudo” with “rhoditis” because this species looks very similar to <i>C. rhoditis</i>. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: We recorded this species from the northwestern portion of the west-central area of endemism (Mts. Torompupu and Rorekatimbo, Central Sulawesi Province), and the north-west and north-east areas of endemism of the northern peninsula (fig. 20; Mt. Dako, Central Sulawesi Province; Mt. Buliohuto, Gorontalo Province; and Mt. Ambang, North Sulawesi Province). The absence of records from the north-central area of endemism is almost certainly due to the lack of general mammal surveys and specimens from this region. Both specimens we report from Mt. Rorekatimbo were trapped by Ruedi (1995); we did not collect any <i>Crocidura pseudorhoditis</i> on Mt. Rorekatimbo, despite working at similar elevations. We found this species at a range of elevations (fig. 13), the low on Mt. Buliohuto (500 m) and the high on Mt. Rorekatimbo (2200 m; table 3). DIAGNOSIS: <i>Crocidura pseudorhoditis</i> is a moderately large shrew (tables 2, 7) with a somewhat stocky build, medium gray, moderately bicolored pelage, a tail that is shorter than headand-body length, and dorsal foot surfaces that range from light gray-brown to pinkish white. The forefeet are paler than the hind feet and the claws are unpigmented and accompanied by a small tuft of white hairs on the hands, but on the hind feet, some of these hairs are dark. The tail is barely dorsoventrally bicolored proximally, but this transitions to a uniformly colored tail for the distal half of tail length. The tail has only sparse bristles over the proximal half of its length (fig. 21C). The lips are gray-brown, but the nose is distinctly paler. The palmar surface ranges from gray-brown to white, being palest on the digits. The color of the plantar surface also transitions from darker to paler colors toward the digits (fig. 21C), but all aspects are darker than on the forefeet. The skull is long (table 7) and broader at the braincase and interorbital region than expected given its length (figs. 10, 22B). The rostrum is long relative to the postpalatal portion of skull length, reflected in the RL/CIL (fig. 10). The suture between the squamosal and parietal bones is often open and in the shape of a sickle blade just below the opening of the sinus canal (fig. 22B). The maxillary bridge is wide. COMPARISONS: <i>Crocidura pseudorhoditis</i> is smaller than <i>C. rhoditis</i>, <i>C. elongata</i>, and <i>C. quasielongata</i>, but larger than <i>C. caudipilosa</i>, Rhoditis Group members <i>C. australis</i> and <i>C. pallida</i>, all members of the Small-Bodied Group, and all members of the Ordinary Group except <i>C. nigripes</i>, which is similarly sized (fig. 19; tables 2, 7). The body of <i>C. pseudorhoditis</i> is more robust than those of <i>C. microelongata</i>, <i>C. australis</i>, and <i>C. pallida</i>, but less stocky than in <i>C. rhoditis</i> and <i>C. caudicrassa</i> (fig. 17). <i>Crocidura pseudorhoditis</i> is slightly darker (both pelage and feet) than <i>C. rhoditis</i> and tail bristles, though not abundant, are still more prevalent than in <i>C. rhoditis</i> (fig. 21). The thenar and hypothenar pads on the hind foot are both more rounded than the oblong pads of <i>C. rhoditis</i> (fig. 21). <i>Crocidura pseudorhoditis</i> is similar in pelage color to <i>C. australis</i> and <i>C. pallida</i>. Braincase breadth relative to skull length is greater than in many of the species with somewhat similar body sizes, including <i>C. rhoditis</i>, and all Elongata Subgroup and Thick-Tailed Group species. However, <i>C. pallida</i> is comparable in this regard, and <i>C. australis</i> has an even greater relative skull breadth no matter where it is measured (fig. 10). The braincase is a bit more angular in <i>C. pseudorhoditis</i> than in <i>C. rhoditis</i>, with the widest part of the cranium in <i>C. pseudorhoditis</i> forming an obtuse point (fig. 22). However, the angularity of the braincase does not reach the degree seen in <i>C. nigripes</i>. The ratio of rostral length to skull length is large in <i>C. pseudorhoditis</i> and exceeded only by that of <i>C. rhoditis</i>; the other Rhoditis Group members have comparatively short relative rostral lengths (RL /CIL) and outside the Rhoditis Group, <i>C. nigripes</i> and the two Thick- Tailed species (defined below) are comparable (fig. 10). <i>Crocidura pseudorhoditis</i> is larger in head-and-body length, foot length, and all cranial dimensions than <i>C. australis</i> and <i>C. pallida</i> (fig. 19; tables 2, 7). The slight difference in size between <i>C. pseudorhoditis</i> and <i>C. rhoditis</i> appears to be enhanced where the two species cooccur (Mt. Ambang; fig. 20), especially condyloincisive length (fig. 23). A principal components analysis of 12 cranial measurements that only included these two species readily separated them on the first axis, which represents size (fig. 19; table 6). COMMENTS: While <i>Crocidura pseudorhoditis</i> is on average smaller than <i>C. rhoditis</i>, the two species are easily confused phenotypically and they occur in sympatry in the north-east area of endemism (fig. 20; table 3). The large mitochondrial distances between <i>C. rhoditis</i> and <i>C. pseudorhoditis</i>, along with the slight but consistent differences in size, which appear to be enhanced where they are syntopic (fig. 23), strongly suggest these are independently evolving populations. Our BPP analyses tested species limits with an alignment that contains 15 <i>C. rhoditis</i> and 58 <i>C. pseudorhoditis</i> and is 96% complete. The analyses supported these species’ distinction with 1.0 posterior probability with all prior combinations in all runs. One of the few cases of clarity from our phylogenetic analyses is the consistent and well-supported sister relationship between <i>Crocidura rhoditis</i> and <i>C. pseudorhoditis</i> (figs. 4, 5, 7, 8; supplementary data S6). Given their phenotypic similarity, this makes sense from a morphological perspective. In our UCE species tree, we found these two species sister to <i>C. elongata</i> (fig. 7). SPECIMENS EXAMINED: Mt. Ambang (LSUMZ 39030, 39031, 39034–39036, 39039–39043, 39045, 39048, 39049, 39051, 39052, 39056, 39059, 39060, 39063, 39066, 39067, 39278, 39280–39283, 39293, 39297, 39298, 39300– 39309, 39311–39314, 39316, 39317, 39322; MZB 43002; NMV C37985, C37992, C37996, C38017), Mt. Buliohuto (LSUMZ 38275–38278, 38284; NMV C37793), Mt. Dako (LSUMZ 36973, 36978, 36979, 36986, 36990, 36991, 36993, 36995, 36998, 37000, 37002, 37005, 37007, 37008, 37011–37016, 37033, 37034; MZB 38564–38566; NMV C37252, C37254, C37264, C37268, C37292, C37297, 37308, 37315, C37328, 37329, C37363, C37367), Mt. Torompupu (NMV C40308), Mt. Rorekatimbo (RMNH 38409 (= IZEA 4406), IZEA 4407).
description: Published as part of <i>Esselstyn, Jacob A., Achmadi, Anang S., Handika, Heru, Swanson, Mark T., Giarla, Thomas C. &amp; Rowe, Kevin C., 2021, Fourteen New, Endemic Species Of Shrew (Genus Crocidura) From Sulawesi Reveal A Spectacular Island Radiation, pp. 1-109 in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2021 (454)</i> on pages 46-48, DOI: 10.1206/0003-0090.454.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5788835
description: {"references": ["Ruedi, M. 1995. Taxonomic revision of shrews of the genus Crocidura from the Sunda Shelf and Sulawesi with description of two new species (Mammalia: Soricidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 115: 211 - 265.", "Esselstyn, J. A., A. S. Achmadi, H. Handika, T. C. Giarla, and K. C. Rowe. 2019. A new climbing shrew from Sulawesi highlights the tangled taxonomy of an endemic radiation. Journal of Mammalogy 100: 1713 - 1725."]}