Lagomorphs by Andrew T. Smith

Author:Andrew T. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2017-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Omiltemi Rabbit

OTHER COMMON NAMES: Omiltemi cottontail; Conejo de Omiltemi, Conejo (Spanish)

DESCRIPTION: The Omiltemi rabbit is a medium-sized cottontail that has a short tail, medium-sized hind feet, and medium-sized ears. The dorsal and nape pelage is rufous black. The ears are black-brown, the sides are grayish black, and the tail is reddish black on the dorsal surface and dingy buffy on the ventral surface. The sides of the nose and the orbital area have dingy buffy grayish coloration. The ventral surface of the cottontail rabbit is buffy brown. There is a significant amount of white on the dorsal surface of the hind feet.

The skull is medium-sized with a long palate; it has a broad braincase, a narrow breadth across the nasals, large maxillary and mandibular tooth rows, short incisive foramina, a short diastema, a narrow basioccipital, and medium-sized auditory bullae, and is broad across the carotid foramina with a narrow breadth across the infraorbital canals. The shield-bulla depth is shallow as well as the skull depth. The supraoccipital shield is squared, and the posterior section of the supraorbital process is slender and flat.

SIZE: Head and body 398–440 mm; Tail 40–45 mm; Hind foot 89–104 mm; Ear 60–76 mm; Greatest length of skull 77–78 mm

CURRENT DISTRIBUTION: The Omiltemi rabbit has a very restricted distribution, less than 500 km² within the Sierra Madre del Sur, Guerrero, Mexico. This rabbit lives in a highly fragmented area within a natural reserve, the Omiltemi State Park (Parque Ecológico Estatal Omiltemi) in the Sierra Madre del Sur. It occurs at elevations between 2,133 and 3,505 m.

TAXONOMY AND GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION: No subspecies. The phylogenetic relationship of S. insonus with other species of Sylvilagus is unclear. Morphological comparisons between the tapetí (S. brasiliensis), Dice’s cottontail (S. dicei), and the Omiltemi rabbit indicate that the tapetí and Dice’s cottontail are more closely related to each other than either is to the Omiltemi rabbit. The Omiltemi rabbit is one of the most poorly known of all mammals; it is represented by only five museum specimens, four complete and one with only a skin.

ECOLOGY: Very little is known about the natural history of the Omiltemi rabbit. It is sympatric with the Mexican cottontail (S. cunicularius). It creates runways within the dense undergrowth, and occupies burrows under rocks or other similar shelters.

HABITAT AND DIET: The preferred habitat of the Omiltemi rabbit is dense cloud forest, where pines (Pinus), oaks (Quercus), and alders (Alnus) are abundant.

BEHAVIOR: The Omiltemi rabbit is mainly a nocturnal species.

PHYSIOLOGY AND GENETICS: Comparative phylogenetic analysis based on partial sequences (560 bp) of the gene 16S between eight species of Sylvilagus showed that the Omiltemi rabbit is most closely related to the desert cottontail (S. audubonii) and the Mexican cottontail instead of the tapetí as had been proposed previously. The sympatric distribution between the Omiltemi rabbit and the Mexican cottontail (in Guerrero, Mexico) seems to support the close relationship between these species. Genetic analysis using partial sequences of cytochrome b gene revealed an average genetic divergence of 15% between the Omiltemi rabbit and the Mexican cottontail.

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