Mammalia, Rodentia, Cricetidae, Irenomys tarsalis (Philippi, 1900): new records for Argentina and filling gaps

Abstract

Ten new records for the Chilean tree mouse, Irenomys tarsalis, are presented from western Argentina. This represents a near 30 % increase in the number of known localities for the species in this country. Nine of them fill a gap of at least 125 km in western Chubut Province, where I. tarsalis was previously known for only three records. Additionally, environmental information at an ecoregional and habitat scale is provided.

First description of the breeding nest of Irenomys tarsalis, a sigmodontine rodent endemic to southern Andean forests

“…Furthermore, I. tarsalis has also been considered a species mostly associated with Nothofagus forests (Kelt, 1993;Pardiñas et al, 2004), although it has been captured in unusual habitats, such as ecotonal areas of shrubs and cypress (Pearson, 1983), a shrubby habitat along a stream in the North of Puerto Ibáñez and Lago General Carrera (Kelt et al, 2008), and in a Pinus contorta plantation in Coyhaique National Reserve (García et al, 2011), both in Argentina and Chile. Despite some novel data on its geographic distribution (Kelt et al, 2008;Martin, 2010;García et al, 2011), the general biology of this species (e.g., habits, behavior, breeding) still remains poorly known. The aim of this work was to describe for the first time the breeding nest of I. tarsalis and to report the arthropod fauna associated with it.…”