Dasyuroides byrnei Spencer, 1896a

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 : 306-307

Dasyuroides byrnei Spencer, 1896a

Report of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia, Zoology Part 2, 36, plate 3, plate 4, figs 1–4. (February 1896).

Common name. Kowari.

Current name. Dasyuroides byrnei Spencer, 1896a ; following Jackson & Groves (2015).

? Paralectotype. M.1140, male, skin mount, skull in situ, from “ Charlotte Waters , Central Australia ” = NT, presented by Prof. B. Spencer, registered on 10 October 1896 .

Topotype. M.1141, female, skin mount, skull in situ, details as per M.1140.

Comments. Dixon (1970) designated a male in alcohol (specimen “a” of Spencer) as lectotype, and discussed the whereabouts of the seven original specimens listed “a–g” by Spencer. Dixon lists specimens b and c, and what she suspected to be specimen “g” in the collections of MV and notes that the whereabouts of remaining specimens are unknown, but that some are possibly in the AM. Given that “b” is the only female syntype, and assuming that Spencer correctly reported its sex, then AM.1141 must have been sent to Spencer after completion of the manuscript of the Horn report and therefore is not part of the type series. All specimens sent to Spencer before 1897 from his collectors were obtained by P. M. Byrne from Charlotte Waters, which included shipments of “males and females” in October 1895 and two specimens in July 1896 ( Calaby, 1996). It is not clear if M.1140 is a paralectotype, or was sent after Spencer finished amending the proofs to the Horn Report, which Calaby states he received in September 1895. Some of Spencer’s letters to the AM have not survived, and there is no correspondence entered against M.1140– 41 in the M Register. In a letter dated 5 September 1895 to the AM (AM Archives AMS9 Letters Received, S:65/1895), Spencer states that he hopes to send specimens of Dasyuroides byrnei “next week”.