NO. 5 MAMMALS OF PANAMA GOLDMAN 63 



Although seldom seen these anteaters doubtless range throughout 

 Panama. Specimens from as far east as the Canal Zone and Porto 

 Bello are referred to the form described from western Panama as 

 Tamandua tetradactyla chiriquensis, the skulls of which are charac- 

 terized by the broader, flatter frontal region, longer nasals and corre- 

 spondingly shorter parietals, as shown by comparison with the 

 Mexican subspecies, T. t. temiirostris. The exact relationship of the 

 Panama animal to " Myrmecophaga sellata " ^ Cope from Honduras, 

 however, remains to be determined, the latter being based on an 

 imperfect skin without skull. A skull from Plantain River, 

 Honduras, assumed to represent T. t. sellata has a very narrow brain- 

 case, but is otherwise somewhat intermediate in general characters 

 between T. t. temiirostris and T. t. chiriquensis. 



This anteater is partly arboreal, partly terrestrial in habits, while 

 the little two-toed anteater, Cyclopes, is strictly arboreal and the 

 great anteater, Myrmecophaga, is wholly terrestrial. It comes out 

 to feed, mainly at least, at night ; a specimen secured at Porto Bello' 

 was killed in the road by a hunter who was carrying an ordinary 

 lantern. He described coming upon the animal suddenly, and how 

 when very near it reared up on its hind feet and struck out with its 

 claws until knocked down by a blow from his gun used as a club. 

 Near Gatun one seen in the forest shortly before dusk one evening 

 was on the ground, but noting my approach clambered rather hastily 

 for five or six feet up the trunk of a tree and disappeared in a hole. 

 At the same locality an example brought in by a native hunter had at 

 least a pound of ants in its stomach. These have been determined 

 by Theo. Pergande of the U. S. Bureau of Entomology and found 

 to represent five genera as follows : Camponotus atriceps Smith, 

 Dolichoderiis bispinosus Mayr, Pseudomyrma pallida Smith, Aphae- 



nogaster sp. ? and Cremastogaster sp ? Most of 



the ants were in a larval condition, but some were already winged. 



The species is known from various localities in western Panama. 

 Under the name Uroleptes sellata, Bangs (1902, p. 20) listed two 

 specimens, one from near the Pacific coast at Divala and the other 

 from 5,000 feet on the slope of the Volcan de Chiriqui. Both were 

 collected by W. W. Brown, Jr., in the course of his field work in 

 the general region. Specimens in the American Museum of Natural 

 History taken by J. H. Batty at Boqueron and Boquete were first 



'This name, placed by Miller (Bull. 79, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1912, p. 401), in the 

 synonymy of T. t. tenuirostris, has priority over the latter and the form seems 

 entitled to stand as Tantanduas tetradactyla sellata (Cope). 



