Plates [24], [25], [26], [30], [37], [38] and [39]
Putorius macrophonius Elliot, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 18:235, December 9, 1905.
Mustela macrophonius, Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 79:100, December 31, 1912.
Mustela frenata macrophonius, Hall, Carnegie Instit. Washington Publ. 473:109, November 20, 1936.
Type.—Male, adult, skull and skin; no. 14063, Field Mus. Nat. Hist.; Achotal, Veracruz, México; January 15, 1904; obtained by Edmund Heller and Charles M. Barber; original no. 3424.
The skull (plates [24]-[26], [30]) is complete and unbroken. Excepting right P2, which has been aborted or broken away, all the teeth are present. The skin is well made and in good condition. As shown by the scrotal pouch, the specimen is a male.
Range.—Tropical Life-zone, probably into Boreal life-zones, of mountains along eastern border of southern Veracruz. See figure [29] on page [221].
Characters for ready recognition.—Differs from M. frenata frenata and M. f. perotae and M. f. leucoparia in lacking color of underparts on hind feet and in larger skull (skulls of adult males with basilar length more than 52.5); from M. f. goldmani by larger size of skull (see above) and entire animal and wider tympanic bullae; from M. f. tropicalis and M. f. perda by larger size (total length of adult males more than 510), postorbital breadth amounting to less than combined length of upper premolars.
Description.—Size.—Male: External measurements of the type specimen, an adult, are: Total length, 598; length of tail, 246; length of hind foot, 59. Tail 70 per cent as long as body; length of hind foot more than basal length.
Female: The skin, without field collector's measurements, of an adult female from Pérez, Veracruz, shows this sex to be correspondingly large. Because the skin is understuffed and because the hind feet are skinned out, reliable measurements can not be obtained from the dried skin.
Externals.—As described in Mustela frenata goldmani except that all carpal vibrissae are of same color as upper parts and that hairiness of foot-soles is halfway between that shown in figures [20] and [21].
Color.—As in darkest individuals of M. f. goldmani, thus, color of upper parts on posterior part of back near (n) Argus Brown. Color of underparts near (12) Mikado Orange in a juvenile, extending distally on posterior sides of forelegs onto inner toes and on hind legs to points between knees and heels. Least width of color of underparts 28 per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts. Black tip of tail 34 per cent of length of tail-vertebrae.
Skull and teeth.—Male (based on type specimen): See measurements and plates [24]-[26], [30]. As described in Mustela frenata frenata except that: Weight, 6.9 grams; basilar length, 54.1; zygomatic breadth less than distance between condylar foramen and M1 or that between anterior palatine foramen and anterior margin of tympanic bulla; interorbital breadth less than distance between foramen opticum and anterior margin of tympanic bulla; anterior margin of tympanic bulla as far posterior to foramen ovale as width of 4 to 6 upper incisors; height of tympanic bulla less than distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale; anterior margin of masseteric fossa below posterior half of m2.
Female (based on no. 132528): See measurements and plates [37]-[39]. As described in Mustela frenata frenata except that: Weight, 3.6 grams; basilar length, 43.5; zygomatic breadth less than distance between condylar foramen and M1 and more or less than (in the single specimen, equal to) that between anterior palatine foramen and anterior margin of tympanic bulla; least width of palate more or less than (about equal to) outside length of P4; tympanic bulla as far posterior to foramen ovale as width of 4 or 5 upper incisors; height of tympanic bulla less than distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale.
The skull of the female is 48 per cent lighter than that of the male.
Comparison of the skull with that of M. f. goldmani is made in the account of that subspecies. Similar differences probably exist between males of perotae and macrophonius. As compared with skulls of males of M. f. tropicalis and perda, the skull of the male of macrophonius is larger in every measurement taken. The postorbital constriction is less, rather than more, than the combined length of the upper premolars. Relative to the basilar length, the following measurements are less than in any specimen of tropicalis or perda: length of tooth-rows; orbitonasal length; depth of skull at posterior border of upper molars; and depth of skull at anterior margin of basioccipital.
Remarks.—This large weasel appears to have escaped the notice of naturalists until the spring of 1903 when J. Friesser obtained an adult female and juvenal male at Pérez for the collection of the United States Bureau of Biological Survey. These specimens were tentatively referred to Mustela tropicalis. In the following January, Edmund Heller and Charles M. Barber obtained the adult male that was made the type specimen by Elliot who did not see, or if he did, did not mention, the specimens from Pérez. He did, however, refer a young female from Xuchil, Veracruz, to his Putorius macrophonius. This young female is here referred to Mustela frenata tropicalis.
The extent of the geographic range of this subspecies is not well known.
Mustela frenata macrophonius and M. f. texensis are the largest American weasels. The basilar length in the type specimen is greater by one-tenth of a millimeter than in the type specimen of M. f. texensis. The other cranial measurements taken are greater in M. f. texensis. The skull of the female from Pérez is one of the largest skulls examined of that sex. The juvenal male has teeth as large as those of the type specimen and the skull is the largest for its age of any seen. Although the skin of the female is understuffed and hence does not provide reliable measurements, it shows that the female is also large.
The white bands in front of the ears are confluent with the white patch between the eyes on one side only in one specimen. It is the juvenal male. These bands are not confluent with the color of the underparts on either side in the female and on one side only in the adult male. None of the specimens has a white patch between the ears. The dark spot at each angle of the mouth is present only in the juvenile where it occurs on each side. Of the three specimens, the juvenile is the darkest and the adult male the lightest. The white facial markings are most extensive in the juvenal male and the least extensive in the adult female.
M. f. macrophonius most closely resembles M. f. goldmani but in the relatively flattened braincase, deep constriction of the postorbital region and general angularity of the skull approaches M. f. perotae and M. f. frenata.