Pseudochirus herbertensis colletti Waite, 1899

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 : 323-324

Pseudochirus herbertensis colletti Waite, 1899

Rec. Aust. Mus. 3(5): 92. (17 April 1899).

Common name. Herbert River Ring-tailed Possum.

Current name. Pseudochirulus herbertensis ( Collett, 1884) , following Jackson & Groves (2015).

Lectotype. M.436, lectotype designation by McKay (1988b). Female, skull, study skin, collected by Robert Grant. Registered in AM during December 1889, originally as a skin with skull in situ. Original entry gives locality as “Herberton district Qld” and collected by “Cairn and Grant”.

Condition. Cranium missing tips of both paroccipital processes, fracture in the right nasal bone. Both dentaries complete. Study skin: tear in left side of the snout, skin is almost flat with little stuffing.

Cranial measurements (mm). M.436: GL, 63.40*; NasL, —; NasB, 8.60; UC1–C1 (alv.), 10.61; DIL, 9.47; PAL, 36.55; UPM (alv.), 3.15; UMR (alv.), 14.73; ZB, 35.06; POC, 7.08; BUL, 8.78; MB, 29.10; DL (angl.), 44.63; DL (condyl.), 44.05; LPM (alv.), 3.23; LMR (alv.), 15.43. [* = estimated; occipital incomplete].

Type locality. “Boar Pocket” Herberton district, Qld, Australia .

Paralectotypes. (3, by subsequent determination).All from Herberton district , Qld, collected by Cairn and Grant, all registered in December 1889: M.437, indeterminate sex, skull, study skin; M.442, immature male, study skin, no skull; M.444, indeterminate sex, skull, study skin .

? Paralectotype. M.19611 (no associated numbers), cranium and both dentaries, locality not given with skull, registered on 19 October 1988.

Comments. Waite’s description was based on five or six specimens. He included external measurements of five specimens (which he designated A to E) and skull and dental measurements for one individual, without indicating sex or registration numbers or designating a holotype. The above four were registered in December 1889 and subsequently marked “co-type var. colletti, Waite ” in the register (in what could be Troughton’s hand) but they are not indicated as such on the old specimen labels. The registration number of one of Waite’s syntypes is not known and the specimen has not been located. It might be the unregistered adult cranium and dentaries found in the collection and registered as M. 19611 in October 1988 but the only associated information was an old paper tag with “ Pseudochirus n. sp” and what appears to be “measured” written in pencil, but no locality or collector given. The dimensions of the specimen are a close match with the measurements provided by Waite.