Coendou insidiosus
Creators: name: Don E. Wilson
name: Thomas E. Lacher, Jr
name: Russell A. Mittermeier
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Erethizontidae
Coendou
Coendou insidiosus

description: 10.
Bahian Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
Coendou insidiosus
French: Coendou de Bahia / German: Bahia-Greifstachler / Spanish: Puercoespin de Bahia
Other common names: Bahia Porcupine, Bahia Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
Taxonomy. Hystrix insidiosa Olfers, 1818,
“Brazil.” Restricted by R. S. Voss and R. Angermann in 1997 to Salvador, northern Bahia, Brazil.
Previously considered Sphiggurus insidiosus, but lack of diagnosable characters to reliably differentiate Sphiggurus from Coendou led it to be placed within Coendou. Coendou insidiosus has been hypothesized to be the sister species to C. spinosus. It is likely sympatric with C. spinosus (thus non-vouchered specimens may not be reliable in areas of co-occurrence) and Chaetomys subspinosus. Monotypic.
Distribution. E Brazil; distribution poorly known but likely stretches from S Sergipe to extreme E Minas Gerais and N Rio de Janeiro.
Descriptive notes. Head-body 290-350 mm, tail 180-222 mm; no specific data available for body weight. The Bahian Hairy Dwarf Porcupine is medium-sized and smoky brown, entirely covered with thick, soft fur and thus appearing spineless. Head 1s less furred, with some white showing at bases of spines; face is dark brown with black whiskers. Frontal sinuses are not inflated, and roof of external auditory meatus is smooth. Sharp, thick, bicolored defensive quills are hidden beneath fur and are pale to whitish basally, with distal one-half dark brown or occasionally tricolored with tips faintly orange. Dorsal fur is unicolored to base. Prehensile tail is short to intermediate in length, ranging from 50-75% of head-body lengths. Tail is colored like body for basal one-third, dark brown to black for middle one-third, and sparsely haired to tip on last one-third. Feet and venter are dark-to-medium brown, although often venter is sparsely covered with a mix of black and yellow hairs. The Bahian Hairy Dwarf Porcupine can be distinguished from the similar Paraguayan Hairy Dwarf Porcupine (C. spinosus) by presence of unicolored, dark vibrissae, and caudal bristles.
Habitat. Primary and mature secondary rainforest, gallery forest, restinga forest (lowcanopy coastal forest of palms and mangroves), “macega scrub” (degraded thickets without large trees), “cabruca” plantations (cacao orchards with an intact canopy of native trees), and “capoeira” (dense young secondary growth).
Food and Feeding. The Bahian Hairy Dwarf Porcupine eats fruit, ant pupae, and cultivated vegetables and roots.
Breeding. There is no information available for this species.
Activity patterns. The Bahian Hairy Dwarf Porcupine is nocturnal and arboreal.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. There is no information available for this species.
Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List (as Sphiggurus insidiosus). The Bahian Hairy Dwarf Porcupine is hunted for meat and its quills, which are said to have medicinal properties. It is considered somewhat rare because it has a restricted distribution, but it can occur at high densities.
Bibliography. Arita et al. (1990), Caldara & Leite (2012), Dobson & Yu Jinping (1993), Eisenberg & Redford (1999), Emmons (1997a), Voss (2015), Voss & Angermann (1997).
description: Published as part of Don E. Wilson, Thomas E. Lacher, Jr & Russell A. Mittermeier, 2016, Erethizontidae, pp. 372-397 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 6 Lagomorphs and Rodents I, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on page 378, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6603219