Mammalia, Rodentia, Sigmodontinae, Akodon molinae Contreras, 1968: new locality records and filling gaps

Akodon molinae Contreras, 1968 is a large (holotype: 42.5 g), diurnal species with long and hispid fur, the dorsum is dark grey and the belly is whitish. The tail is shorter (holotype: 78 mm) than head and body (holotype: 108 mm), black dorsally and white in its centrally proximal third. The skull is large and strong, the zygomatic plate is wide and its edge is slightly convex and directed obliquely backwards and down (type description, Contreras 1968). The mandible has a short and robust coronoid process and an anteromedian flexus/flexid on the first upper and lower molars respectively, like other species in the genus Akodon. Cranial and dental remains of A. molinae are shown in Figure 1. The holotype was collected in vivero del Ministerio de Asuntos Agrarios, Laguna Chasicó, Buenos Aires province, Argentina, in grasslands near water bodies (Contreras 1968). Near the Atlantic coast, it lives in shrub steppes and halophilic plant communities (Daciuk 1974). Its distribution in northern Patagonia was associated with the Monte Phytogeographical Province (Pardiñas et al. 2003).