ABSTRACT
The tigrina Leopardus tigrinus (Schreber, 1775SCHREBER, J.C.D. VON. 1775. Die Säugethiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen, 2(14), pl. 99, 100; 2(15): pl. 101, 101B, 105, 106; 2(16): pl. 108.) is a small-sized Neotropical spotted cat found from northern Argentina and southern Brazil to Costa Rica. Four subspecies are traditionally recognized: L. t. tigrinus (Schreber, 1775SCHREBER, J.C.D. VON. 1775. Die Säugethiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen, 2(14), pl. 99, 100; 2(15): pl. 101, 101B, 105, 106; 2(16): pl. 108.) from northern Brazil, the Guianas and eastern Venezuela; L. t. pardinoides (Gray, 1867GRAY, J.E. 1867a. Notes on certain species of cats in the collection of the British Museum. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1867:394-405.) from western Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru; L. t. guttulus (Hensel, 1872HENSEL, R.F. 1872. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Säugethiere Süd-Brasiliens. Abhandlungen der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaft. Berlin, 1872:1-130.) from southern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina; and L. t. oncillus (Thomas, 1903THOMAS, O. 1903. Notes on Neotropical mammals of the genera Felis, Hapale, Oryzomys, Akodon, and Ctenomys, with descriptions of new species. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 7, 12:234-243.) from Costa Rica. We studied external and craniodental morphology in quantitative and qualitative terms from 250 specimens in order to clarify the taxonomic status of tigrina. Based on the characters analyzed in this study, we recognize three diagnosable morphogroups, each with a distinct geographic distribution: northern/northwestern/west (samples from northern Brazil, the Guianas, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, northwestern Argentina and Costa Rica), eastern (samples from northeastern and central Brazil), and southern (samples from southern Brazil, Paraguay and northeastern Argentina). Taking into account the morphologic evidence presented here, supported by biogeographic data and molecular studies available, we recognize three full species for tigrinas: L. tigrinus (including the putative subspecies L. t. pardinoides and L. t. oncillus as junior synonyms) for northern/northwestern/west group; L. emiliae (Thomas, 1914THOMAS, O. 1914. On various South American mammals. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 8, 13:345-362.) for eastern group; and L. guttulus for southern group.
KEY-WORDS:
Leopardus tigrinus; L. guttulus; L. emiliae; Subspecies; Morphological variation
