Perameles macroura var. torosus Ramsay, 1877a

Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy & Divljan, Anja, 2017, Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (5), pp. 277-420 : 406

Perameles macroura var. torosus Ramsay, 1877a

Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (ser. 1) 2(1): 12. (July 1877).

Common name. Northern Brown Bandicoot.

Current name. Isoodon macrourus torosus ( Ramsay, 1877a) , following Jackson & Groves (2015).

Syntypes. Type material for this taxon has not been reported. As detailed below, it is likely that Ramsay used more than one specimen for his description and that a syntype series once existed. Syntypes are likely to have originally been in the collections of W. Macleay, so possibly now in the Macleay Museum, in the AM, or in Ramsay’s private collection. It is possible that syntypes were sent to other institutions by Ramsay .

Type localities. Include Rockingham Bay [Cardwell] and Endeavour River [Cooktown], Qld, Australia.

Comments. Past interpretations of Ramsay’s description have assumed a holotype (e.g., Lyne & Mort, 1981; Mahoney & Ride, 1988c) but it is likely that his description involved syntypes. Ramsay’s description focused on a female specimen obtained near Cooktown but the fact that he gave the distribution as Rockingham Bay [Cardwell] to Endeavour River [Cooktown] suggests that he was aware of other specimens. More ambiguous is his statement that “For the present I prefer to place the specimens, showing these peculiarities, as a variety [Ramsay’s emphasis] of P. macroura …”—this could refer to either existing or future material .

Troughton (as Anonymous, 1927) states that “the specimen” of torosus described by Ramsay was collected during the Chevert Expedition and was in the Macleay Museum, although whether this is based on first hand knowledge or surmise is unclear. We are not aware that the Chevert party collected at Endeavour River and it seems more likely that the type or syntypes were obtained on collecting trips to the region around that time by several different collectors. Edward Spalding collected material for Macleay at Endeavour River from June to October 1874 ( Whittell, 1954), and in July of that year sent specimens that Macleay termed “skins of a new bandicoot” ( Fletcher, 1929: 230). Ramsay also obtained mammals from the Rockingham Bay district and visited the area himself on a number of occasions, e.g., in 1874 ( Ramsay, 1876c). It appears that all taxonomic assessments of this taxon have relied on Ramsay’s original description and that the types have remained unlocated.