Saddle-back tamarins
Weddell's saddle-back tamarin
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Family:	Callitrichidae
Genus:	Leontocebus Wagner, 1840
Type species
Leontocebus fuscus Lesson, 1840
Species
10 species, see text
Synonyms
Saguinus Hoffmannsegg, 1807 Marikina Lesson, 1840 Tamarin Gray, 1870 Tamarinus Trouessart, 1904

The saddle-back tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus or subgenus Leontocebus. They were split from the tamarin genus Saguinus based on genetic data and on the fact that saddle-back tamarins are sympatric with members of Saguinus to a greater extent than would be expected from two members of the same genus.^[1][2] However, this argument can be circular, as several other mammals show sympatry among congeneric species, such as armadillos (genus Dasypus), spotted cats (genus Leopardus), and fruit-eating bats (genus Artibeus).^[3] Some authors still consider Leontocebus to be a subgenus of Saguinus.^[4]

Species include:^[5][6]

Genus Leontocebus – Wagner, 1840 – ten species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Cruz Lima's saddle-back tamarin	Leontocebus cruzlimai (Hershkovitz, 1966)	Brazil	Size: Habitat: Area near the Inauini River Diet:	LC
Brown-mantled tamarin or Spix's saddle-back tamarin	Leontocebus fuscicollis (Spix, 1823) Four subspecies L. f. avilapiresi, Avila Pires' saddle-back tamarin L. f. fuscicollis, Spix's saddle-back tamarin L. f. mura, Mura's saddleback tamarin L. f. primitivus, Lako's saddleback tamarin	Bolivia, Brazil and Peru.	Size: Habitat: the Andes Mountains throughout the Amazon River Basin, they tend to inhabit primary and secondary lowland tropical forests. Diet:	LC
Lesson's saddle-back tamarin	Leontocebus fuscus (Pucheran, 1845)	Peru (Amazonas)	Size: Habitat: Diet:	NT
Illiger's saddle-back tamarin	Leontocebus illigeri (Lesson, 1840)	Colombia (Plaines de Mocoa, Putumayo, between the Rio Putumayo and Rio Caqueta), Brazil	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Red-mantled saddle-back tamarin	Leontocebus lagonotus (Jiménez de la Espada, 1870)	Ecuador and Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Andean saddle-back tamarin	Leontocebus leucogenys (Gray, 1866)	Peru (Huanuco)	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Black-mantled tamarin	Leontocebus nigricollis (Spix, 1823) Three subspecies Spix's black mantle tamarin, Leontocebus nigricollis nigricollis Graells's tamarin or Graells’ black-mantle tamarin, Leontocebus nigricollis graellsi Hernandez-Camacho's black-mantle tamarin, Leontocebus nigricollis hernandezi	western Brazil, southeastern Colombia, north-eastern Peru and eastern Ecuador.	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Geoffroy's saddle-back tamarin	Leontocebus nigrifrons (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1850)	Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Golden-mantled tamarin or Golden-mantled saddle-back tamarin	Leontocebus tripartitus (Milne-Edwards, 1878)	Ecuador and Peru(Amazon), Ecuador, and Northeast Peru (between the Rio Curaray and Rio Napo).	Size: Habitat: Diet:	NT
Weddell's saddle-back tamarin	Leontocebus weddelli (Deville, 1849) Three subspecies Leontocebus weddelli weddelli Crandall's saddle-back tamarin, (Leontocebus weddelli crandalli) White-mantled tamarin or White saddle-back tamarin, (Leontocebus weddelli melanoleucus)	Brazil, Bolivia and Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC

In some locations saddle-back tamarins live sympatrically with tamarins of the genus Sanguinus, but the saddle-back tamarins typically occupy lower strata of the forest than do the Sanguinus species.^[1] Saddle-back tamarins have longer and narrower hands than Sanguinus species, possibly adaption to differing foraging behavior, as saddle-back tamarins are more likely to search for insects that are hidden in knotholes, crevices, bromeliad tanks and leaf litter, while Sanguinus species are more likely to forage for insects that are exposed on surfaces such as leaves or branches.^[1]

References