

PITHECIA 291 



PlTHECIA CAPILLIMENTOSA Spix. 



Pithecia capillimentosa Spix, Sim. et Vespert. Bras., 1823, XVI, 

 pi. XI; Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1860, p. 229; Reichenb., 

 Vollstand. Naturg. Affen, 1862, p. 25, fig. 73. 



Pithecia ruiiventer (nee Geoff.), Wagn., Schreb., Saugth. Suppl., 

 I, 1840, p. 222, (desc. nee Syn.). 



Type locality. Cayenne. Type in Munich Museum. 



Genl. Char. Hair very long and loose on hinder part of head, and 

 inclined to stand erect. Face covered with short hairs. 



Color. Forepart of head and sides yellowish white, the hairs 

 being black at base with yellowish white tips ; upper parts of body and 

 flanks clove brown, the long hairs falling over the shoulders, and on 

 arms above elbows tipped with yellowish white ; forearms, hands and 

 feet jet black; throat, breast and abdomen buff, rest of under parts to 

 vent clove brown ; tail very bushy, clove brown. 



Measurements. Total length, 475 ; tail, 220 ; foot, 90. Skull in 

 specimen. Ex type Munich Museum. 



The type is a young animal, perhaps half grown, and has gener- 

 ally been considered the same as Pithecia pithecia (Linn.). It is, 

 however, much nearer P. monacha (Humboldt), but differs from that 

 species in its jet black hands and feet, and in having the buff on the 

 under parts extending to the lower part of the abdomen. Compared 

 with a young P. monacha of about the same size and probably age, 

 it differs in the much longer hairs on the head and neck rising, as Spix 

 states, like a wig, (but not shown in his plate), in the much greater 

 extent of the buff color on the under parts, and strikingly in the totally 

 different color of the hands and feet, as there is no indication whatever 

 of the grayish or yellowish white hue which makes the hands and feet 

 of P. monacha so conspicuous a feature of that species. There seems 

 to be no alternative but to consider Spix's type as representing a dis- 

 tinct form. Like so many of Spix's figures, the one given of this type 

 does not represent the animal either in color or in the length and 

 peculiar disposition of the hairs. Spix did not collect this specimen, but 

 found it in the collection of the Munich Museum, and it was in the 

 register of 1816 as having come from Cayenne. This is on one of the 

 tickets now attached to the type. Of course this was before Spix made 

 his journey to Brazil. He does not say in his work what the locality 

 of his type was, but merely gives a description of the animal and a 

 figure. 



