Heteromys salvini Thomas 1893

Dataset
Heteromyidae: Rank
SPECIES

Classification

kingdom
Animalia: phylum
Chordata: class
Mammalia: order
Rodentia: family
Heteromyidae: genus
Heteromys: species
Heteromys salvini

activity

Activity patterns. Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse is nocturnal and active throughout the year.

biology_ecology

Habitat. Mostly dry tropical lowland forests of the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Central America to central Costa Rica. Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse also occurs along Pacific slopes of mountains of Central America, reaching elevations of ¢. 1500 m. Lower montane forests inhabited by Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse are largely pine-oak. It is common in the Caribbean drainage only along the Rio Motagua and Rio Negro in Guatemala and north-western Honduras. Nests are usually in the burrow system.

biology_ecology

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse is solitary, with home ranges oriented randomly with respect to members of the same or opposite sex. Males move around in their home ranges more than females, as measured by distance between captures. Male home ranges are 0 - 16 - 0 - 26 ha; female home ranges are 0 - 13 - 0 - 18. Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse is probably promiscuous or effectively polygynous. In the laboratory, male size was a good predictor of dominance. Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mice are less tolerant of conspecifics and home ranges are less likely to be clumped than in Desmarest’s Spiny Pocket Mouse (H. desmarestianus). Density for Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse is as high as 9 ind / ha.

breeding

Breeding. Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse has an average litter size of 3 - 6 young (range of 2 - 6). Breeding season may be highly seasonal in Costa Rica, lasting for six months (January-June) with an average of 1 - 8 litters / female; in other populations, it may be year-round. Sex ratio did not differ from 1: 1. Minimum annual survival in one population was c. 18 %.

conservation

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List (as Liomys salvini).

description

Descriptive notes. Head-body mean 114 mm (males) and 108 mm (females), tail 88 - 145 mm (males) and 81 - 155 mm (females), ear mean 14 mm, hindfoot 23 - 30 mm (males) and 22 - 31 mm (females); weight 45 g. Male Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mice are somewhat larger than females. It is scansorial and small-sized for the genus, with coarse adult pelage having abundantstiff, flattened spine-like hairs on dorsal and lateral surfaces of body. Upper parts are grayish brown to deep chocolate brown. There is no obvious buffy lateral line, and belly is white. Hairs on back are curled upward and are conspicuous above spines. Posterior parts of soles of hindfeet are sparsely haired, with six plantar tubercles; claw of second digit on hindfoot is spoon-like, apparently an adaptation for digging. Tail is moderately haired and darker on the upper part. Cheekteeth have medium-high crowns, and lower premolar has two lophids. Auditory bullae are only moderately inflated. Chromosomal complement has 2 n = 56 and FN = 86. Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse is much smaller than its phyletically and geographically closest congener, the Panamanian Spiny Pocket Mouse (H. adspersus), which occurs ¢. 300 km away in central Panama and has FN = 84. Pelage color of Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse is somewhat darker than that of the Panamanian Spiny Pocket Mouse. Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse is smaller than the Painted Spiny Pocket Mouse (H. pictus), with which it overlaps in southern Mexico.

discussion

In 2007, J. C. Hafner and colleagues confirmed paraphyly of Liomys relative to Heteromys, so they placed Liomys in synonymy with Heteromys. This species (formerly Liomys salvini) and its sister species, H. adspersus, form a clade that is basal to the other members of the genus, and for which the subgeneric or generic name Schaferia has been suggested. This clade is estimated to have diverged from the rest of the genus 15 - 2 million years ago, about the same time as divergence between kangaroo rats (Dipodomys) and kangaroo mice (Microdipodops) and initial radiation among the major species groups of silky pocket mice (Perognathus) and coarse-haired pocket mice (Chaetodipus). Three subspecies recognized.

distribution

Subspecies and Distribution. H. s. salviniThomas, 1893 — SGuatemala, ElSalvador, NW & SCHonduras, WCNicaragua (includingOmetepeIinLakeNicaragua), andW & CCostaRica. H. s. crispusMerriam, 1902 — SMexico (coastalSEOaxacaandSChiapas) andcoastalSWGuatemala. H. s. vulcani]. A. Allen, 1908 — W Nicaragua (volcanoes of the Cordillera los Marrabios and W lowlands, W of Lake Managua, the Meseta de los Pueblos W of Lake Nicaragua, and on Zapatera I in Lake Nicaragua).

food_feeding

Food and Feeding. Diet of Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse includes seeds, other plant material, and insects. Seeds are transported in external, fur-lined cheek pouches and stored in the burrow or nearby shallow pits. Laboratory studies show that it can survive for months and gain weight on a pure diet of germinating seeds of the guanacaste or elephant-ear tree (Enterolobium, Fabaceae), which is fatally toxic to sympatric rodents, but it cannot live on seeds that have not germinated. Seeds that have been scarified by chewing by Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mice readily germinate in moist burrow storage chambers, and the tree species may depend to a large degree on the mouse’s behavior after seed caching and on depth of storage chambers.

materials_examined

Duenas, Sacatépequez, Guatemala.

Name

Homonyms: Heteromys salvini Thomas 1893
Common names: Raton espinoso de Salvin in language.; Salvin-Stacheltaschenmaus in ドイツ語; Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse in 英語; Souris-a-ajaboues de Salvin in フランス語