Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921)

Voss, Robert S., 2022, An Annotated Checklist Of Recent Opossums (Mammalia: Didelphidae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2022 (455), pp. 1-77 : 45

Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921)

TYPE MATERIAL AND TYPE LOCALITY: BMNH 21.6.7.19, the holotype by original designation, consists of the skin, skull, and postcranial skeleton of an adult male collected at “Estancia Madujada” (= Estancia La Madrugada: 47.22° S, 66.45° W) near Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz province, Argentina. Jenkins and Knutson (1983: 19) gave the type locality as “Cape Tres Puntas, SE Patagonia” after Thomas (1921b), but Thomas (1929) subsequently corrected the type locality based on correspondence with the collector.

SYNONYMS: None.

DISTRIBUTION: Lestodelphys halli is found in the Monte Desert and Patagonian Steppe ecoregions of Argentina, including the provinces of Chubut, La Pampa, Mendoza, Neuquén, Río Negro, and Santa Cruz ( Formoso et al., 2015: fig. 1).

REMARKS: Given the extensive geographic range of Lestodelphys halli and its uniquely austral distribution (approximately from 31° to 48° S), a phylogeographic analysis of mtDNA sequence data from this species would be of considerable interest. Morphological variation within a large series of specimens was described by Martin (2005), who also provided a craniodental diagnosis.