Monodelphis (Monodelphiops) dimidiata (Wagner, 1847)

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 : 22-23

Monodelphis (Monodelphiops) dimidiata

( Wagner, 1847)

TYPE MATERIAL AND TYPE LOCALITY: BMNH 55.12 .24.72, the holotype by monotypy, consists of the skin and skull of a very old adult male collected at Maldonado (34.90° S, 54.95° W; at sea level), Maldonado department, Uruguay .

SYNONYMS: brevicaudis Olfers, 1818 (see Remarks, below); fosteri Thomas, 1924; henseli Thomas, 1888; itatiayae Miranda-Ribeiro, 1936; lundi Matschie, 1916; paulensis Vieira, 1950 ; sorex Hensel, 1872 .

DISTRIBUTION: Monodelphis dimidiata occurs in a variety of forested and open habitats in southeastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, northeastern Argentina, and Uruguay ( Vilela et al., 2010: fig. 2).

REMARKS: Monodelphis dimidiata and M. sorex were considered distinct species by Pine and Handley (2008), but Vilela et al. (2010) summarized molecular and morphometric evidence that they are conspecific. As discussed elsewhere ( Voss et al., 2009a; Vilela et al., 2010), brevicaudis is probably a senior synonym, but it should not be used to replace either of these long-established names.