232 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 69 



CEBUS CAPUCINUS IMITATOR Thomas 



Panama White-throated Capuchin 



Cebus imitator Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 7, Vol. II, p. 376, April, 

 1903. Type from Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama. 



The Panama white-throated capuchin inhabits the general region 

 from the Canal Zone westward and northward to Costa Rica. No 

 external character is known by which it may be distinguished from 

 C. capucinus capuchins of eastern Panama, but the decidedly greater 

 average transverse extent of the premolars above and below seem to 

 entitle it to subspecific recognition. The upper premolars are usually 

 broader than the first molar, while in typical C. capucinus the width 

 of these teeth is about the same. In Central America the capuchins 

 exhibit a progressive increase from south to north, in the width of 

 the premolars, the maximum development noted being in specimens 

 of Cebus c. limitaneus Hollister from Honduras. 



An example of the Panama white-throated capuchin was obtained 

 at Gatun, Canal Zone, which seems to be near the eastern limit of the 

 range of the subspecies. Mr. Alston (1879, p. 13) mentions speci- 

 mens in the British Museum obtained by Arce in Veragua. Two 

 topotypes collected by Mr. W. W. Brown, Jr., are recorded by 

 Mr. Outram Bangs (1902, p. 51) as Cebus hypoleucus. Under the 

 same name five specimens of this species taken at Boqueron and one 

 at Boquete by Mr. J. H. Batty are listed by Dr. J. A. Allen (1904, 

 p. 80) who remarks that the males and females do not appear to 

 differ in the relative elongation, or color, of the hair of the frontal 

 region. In discussing six specimens of the capuchin of Coiba Island 

 Mr. Oldfield Thomas (1902, p. 135) says: "I can find absolutely 

 no difference, either in size or colour, between these and mainland 

 specimens. Considering the small size of the island there is a notice- 

 able amount of variation within the series, both with regard to the 

 extension ot tne white on the arms and shoulders and in the skull 

 in the height of the nasal bones." Skulls of specimens from Coiba 

 Island in the American Museum of Natural History are rather small 

 and in the narrowness of the premolars might, with nearly equal 

 propriety, be referred to typical C. c. capucinus. 



So little is known of the habits of the capuchins in Panama that 

 the following observations on the same species by Belt 1 in Nicaragua 

 seem worth quoting : " Sometimes .... we would fall in with a 

 troop of the white-faced cebus monkey, rapidly running away, throw- 

 ing themselves from tree to tree. This monkey feeds also partly on 

 fruit, but is incessantly on the lookout for insects, examining the 



1 Naturalist in Nicaragua, p. 118, 1888. 



