Cyclopes dorsalis, (GRAY, 1865)

Miranda, Flávia R., Casali, Daniel M., Perini, Fernando A., Machado, Fabio A. & Santos, Fabrício R., 2018, Taxonomic review of the genus Cyclopes Gray, 1821 (Xenarthra: Pilosa), with the revalidation and description of new species, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 183, pp. 687-721 : 706-708

CYCLOPES DORSALIS ( GRAY, 1865)

( FIG. 16)

Cyclothurus dorsalis Gray, 1865: 385 . Type locality ‘Costa Rica’.

C [yclopes]. d [idactylus]. dorsalis : Thomas, 1900: 302. Name combination.

Cyclopes dorsalis : Bangs, 1902: 20. First use of current name combination.

Cyclopes didactylus eva Thomas, 1902: 250 . Type locality ‘Rio Tapayo, N. W. Ecuador’.

[ Cyclopes didactylus ] dorsalis : Trouessart, 1905: 803. Name combination.

Cyclopes mexicanus Hollister, 1914: 210 . Type locality ‘ Tehuantepee, Oaxaca, Mexico’ .

Cyclopes didactylus mexicanus : Krumbiegel, 1940: 181. Name combination.

Holotype: Female, BMNH (65.5.18.14), collected by Goodwin in 1946 ( Fig. 17).

Type locality: ‘Costa Rica’.

Referred specimens: Holotype: BMNH (65.5.18.14), Costa Rica; Belize: USNM (583067), Toledo; Colombia: FMNH (69971, 71002), Antioquia; LACM (27345, 56112), Magdalena; USNM (554227), Narino; FMNH (69969), Unguia; AMNH (37786), Valdivia; Costa Rica: AMNH (139460); BMNH (2.7.26.3, C. d. eva Holotype); Ecuador: AMNH (34298); FMNH (44056, 44055); USNM (121097, 11377); Guatemala: USNM (19456, 244949); Honduras: USNM (19472, 148761), Cortes; Mexico: MVZ (171801), La Poza, AMNH (214155); FMNH (64187, 64188); USNM [38534 (C. d. mexicanus Holotype), 77089, 78111, 100040, 100172, 100173, 100174, 111377]. Nicaragua: AMNH (28480, 30755); USNM (337712, 338772); Panama: MNZ (116810, 116811), Canal Zone ; AMNH (18887, 69581); FMNH (122699); USNM (200288, 248343, 283876, 292250, 292251, 292252, 294075, 297891, 297892, 304941, 305592, 310356, 310357, 314573, 314574, 314575, 314576, 396434, 460157, 460158, 516629, 575607).

Distribution: This species, although mainly Central American in distribution, also occurs along the Pacific coast of Ecuador and Colombia, and in the Inter- Andean valleys of Colombia, extending northwards to southern Mexico ( Fig. 27).

Diagnosis: Fur of the body, limbs and tail is very deeply yellow, dorsal stripe irregular but distinctive and ventral stripe weakly marked or absent. Fronto-nasal region of the skull not depressed, with a straight profile. External aperture of the ear directed anteriorly. Naso-maxillary sutures divergent proximally, with very short fronto-maxillary suture. Fronto-parietal suture with triangular or trapezoidal shape, pterygoid bone does not overlap tympanic bulla.

Comparisons: Cyclopes dorsalis has a very distinctive yellowish tone throughout the whole body with no greyish parts, which, in combination with the presence of a dorsal stripe and absence or weak ventral stripe, characterize this species. Cyclopes xinguensis sp. nov. also has only a dorsal stripe, but its coloration is mostly grey.

Remarks: Gray (1865) described Cyclothurus dorsalis as a new species from Central America based on the golden yellow back and always present, broad, dorsal black stripe and the yellow feet and tail, differing from Cyclothurus didactylus , which possessed fulvous back and grey feet and tail. Trouessart (1899) lowered it to a subspecies ( Var. dorsalis ) of Cycloturus [sic]. Bangs (1902) was the first to use the name combination C. dorsalis , the same used here, keeping it as a separate species. Trouessart (1905) considered C. dorsalis to be a subspecies of C. didactylus , using the name Cyclopes didactylus dorsalis .

Oldfield Thomas (1902) described Cyclopes didactylus eva as a new subspecies from the west of the Andes, in northwest Ecuador, and considered it an intermediate between C. d. dorsalis and C. d. didactylus and C. d. ida . Given its distribution, continuous with the Central American populations and disjunct in relationship to the other South American populations of Cyclopes , and characteristics (see description), which conform well to C. dorsalis , it is here considered a synonym. Hollister (1914) described another species, Cyclopes mexicanus , from southern Mexico, based on some coloration differences. Cyclopes mexicanus was later considered a subspecies of C. didactylus by Krumbiegel (1940). Both the skull and pelage coloration of C. mexicanus also conform well to the characters of C. dorsalis and is also here considered a synonymous of this species. However, since our molecular sample of C. dorsalis consists of a single individual from ‘Esmeraldas’, in the forests of the Pacific coast of Ecuador, the present arrangement must be considered provisory, until further data permit a more complete analysis. We believe that the populations of Cyclopes from the west of the Andes deserve further scrutiny to clarify their taxonomic status.