Phalangista johnstonii Ramsay, 1888a

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 : 327

Phalangista johnstonii Ramsay, 1888a

Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (ser. 2) 3(3): 1297. (7 December 1888).

Common name. Coppery Brush-tailed Possum.

Current name. Trichosurus vulpecula johnstonii ( Ramsay, 1888a) , following Jackson & Groves (2015), who indicate the need for further investigation. Either regarded as a subspecies (e.g., Kerle & Howe, 2008), or as a full species (e.g., Flannery, 1994; Groves, 2005d; Helgen & Jackson, 2015).

Lectotype. M.120, designated by McKay (1988c). Male adult, study skin with skull in situ, collected by Cairn and Grant, registered February 1888. Collection date of January 1888 stated on hand written specimen index card, probably written in early 20th century. X-ray images taken of the skin in 2013 reveal a complete cranium and dentaries .

Condition. Study skin is almost flat without stuffing, in reasonable condition.

Type locality. Atherton Tableland–Bellenden Ker Range region, North Qld, Australia.

Paralectotypes. (6). All are study skins prepared in the field without stuffing, collected by Cairn and Grant, Bellenden Ker Range: M.115, male adult, skin, no skull; M.116, male adult, skin, skull in situ; M.117, male adult, skin, skull in situ; M.118, sex indeterminate from skin but given as female on old specimen index card, skin with skull in situ; M.121, sex indeterminate from skin but given as male on old specimen index card, skin, skull in situ; and M.122, indeterminate sex, skin, skull in situ. An additional specimen collected at the same time (M.119, skin mount, sex not recorded), was not located in the collection in 2013. A note against M. 119 in the M Register dated 1926 states “appears to be missing”.

Comments. Ramsay did not indicate the number of specimens in the type series in his original account, but later he listed ( Ramsay, 1888b: 30) “7 Phalangista johnstonei [sic], (Ramsay) sp. nov.” and “1 Phalangista sp. (nov. juv)” as dry skins obtained by Cairn and Grant (no spirit specimens of this taxon are listed). Date of collection is not recorded, but in his description, Ramsay states that Cairn and Grant obtained the material in the “previous January” (= 1888?). We have not found a published account of the registration numbers of the type series. The register of Feb. 1888 lists eight specimens, (M.115–122, all skins) all collected by Cairn and Grant from “Bellunder Kerr Queensland ” and we believe all are likely paralectotypes. M.115 to M.120 are listed as Phalangista johnstonii , with “type” written later in pencil against M.115 and M.120. Species is given as Phalangista sp nov. for M.121, which was subsequently amended to “ T. johnstonii ”. M.122 is listed as Phalangista “lemuroides” in pen, later in pencil changed to T. johnstonii and “type” also added in pencil. Ramsay provides extensive cranial and dental measurements for a single skull, which could only have been taken on an extracted skull, but its whereabouts is unknown. Ramsay also gave a short description of pelage colour but did not indicate the sex of the specimen upon which his description is based. All surviving skulls from the type series remain inside the skins.

McKay (1988c: 85) cites the type locality as “probably Atherton Tableland (as Bellenden Kerr Range)”. Ramsay does not mention the collecting locality of the type series, but indicates in the introduction to his original account, that Cairn and Grant had returned from a trip “to the table lands of the Bellenden-Kerr Ranges” and in the paper provides a list of mammals “inhabiting the Brushes of the slopes and tableland of the range of mountains known as Bellenden Kerr”. Consequently, the type series was likely to have been collected from the Atherton Tablelands or the slopes of Bellenden Kerr Ranges, or both.