NO. 5 MAMMALS OF PANAMA — GOLDMAN 165 



Subfamily LUTRINAE. Otters 

 Genus LUTRA Brisson. Otters 

 The otter is aquatic in habits and differs conspicuously in appear- 

 ance from all the other mammals of the region. The body is 

 elongated and supple and the limbs are short as usual in the family ; 

 the ears are very short, the tail is rather long, tapering, and somewhat 

 flattened. The otter is much prized for its beautiful fur. Unlike 

 the forms of the more northern L. canadensis group the otters of 

 Middle America have the nose pad haired to near the upper border 

 of the nostrils ; the soles of the feet are entirely naked ; the tufts of 

 hair under the toes and the granular tubercles present on the soles 

 of the hind feet in L. canadensis are absent. 



LUTRA REPANDA Goldman 



Panama Otter ; Nutria 

 [Plate 35, figs. 1, la] 

 Lutra repanda Goldman, Smiths. Misc. Coll., Vol. 63, No. 5, p. 3, March 14, 

 1914. Type from Cana, eastern Panama (altitude 2,000 feet). 



The otters inhabiting the general region as far west at least as the 

 Canal Zone and from sea level to 2,000 feet altitude or higher belong 

 to a rather small species much more closely allied to L. colombiana of 

 Colombia than to the other known Middle American forms. It 

 apparently differs from L. colombiana in a number of cranial details, 

 the rostrum and interorbital space being narrower; the lachrymal 

 eminence more prominent, projecting as a distinct process on the 

 anterior border of the orbit ; the jugal less expanded vertically ; the 

 palate reaching farther posteriorly beyond the molars ; the upper 

 carnassial narrower, with the inner lobe less produced posteriorly, 

 leaving a gap which is absent in the type of L. colombiana; the upper 

 molar narrower, with the posteroexternal cusp set inward giving the 

 crown a less evenly rectangular outline. Contrasted with that of 

 L. latidens of Nicaragua, the skull is very much smaller and the two 

 appear to be specifically distinct. 



The specimens secured were brought to me by hunters who re- 

 ported seeing them in small streams where they were shot during the 

 day. According to the natives otters occur rather sparingly along 

 small streams throughout the region. Near the mouth of the Chagres 

 River they live along the banks of creeks up which the tide runs for 

 some distance. 



Under the name Lutra felina, Alston (1879, p. 86) records the 

 otter as received through M. Boucard from Panama. Anthony 



