Dorcopsis beccarii Miklouho-Maclay, 1885c

Parnaby, Harry & Gill, Anthony C., 2021, Mammal type specimens in the Macleay Collections, University of Sydney, Zootaxa 4975 (2), pp. 201-252 : 224

Dorcopsis beccarii Miklouho-Maclay, 1885c

Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (ser. 1) 10 (2), 146, plate 20, figs 1–4. (31st July 1885).

Description read at the 29th April 1885 meeting of the LSNSW.

Current name. Grey Forest Wallaby Dorcopsis luctuosa ( D’Albertis, 1873) following Groves & Flannery (1989).

Taxonomic status. Not considered a valid species by most authors, who followed Thomas (1888). He believed that diagnostic features proposed by Miklouho-Maclay were age-related differences and synonymised the name with Dorcopsis luctuosa .

Holotype. M.383, female, by subsequent determination by Stanbury (1969). Stuffed study skin, originally with an extracted skull, now lost. Purchased from Andrew Goldie ( Miklouho-Maclay 1885c). Old associated label states “ Dorcopsis luctuosa, d’ Albertis, D. Beccarii Mikl-Macl. , Port Moresby, New Guinea ” which adopts the nomenclature of Thomas (1888) and is clearly not Miklouho-Maclay’s original label.

Type locality. Hills in the vicinity of Hanuabada [village] (Miklouho-Maclay), Port Moresby, Central Province, Papua New Guinea.

Comments. Miklouho-Maclay stated that his description was based on one specimen, an adult female skin in Macleay’s Collection, which in 1885 would have been housed at Macleay’s residence at Elizabeth Bay , Sydney. Plate 20 of the original account illustrates an intact skull, and plate and text clearly indicate that the permanent premolars and last (fourth) molars were fully erupted. The illustrated skull must have been extracted from the female skin, although it is unclear if the skull has been extracted from the skin now labelled M.383. Miklouho-Maclay stated that the skull and teeth were badly corroded by poor preservation, a characteristic of material obtained from Andrew Goldie, who often stored specimens in corrosive brine. The fate of the skull remains undetermined and Groves & Flannery (1989) listed M.383 as a skin only. It is unclear whether the skull was still in the Collection by the 1960s. The Mammal Register entry for M.383, entered about 1964–1965, lists “skin & skull” but at an unknown date, “skull” has been crossed out and “ ♀ ” added in pencil. The specimen card index has an orange card for M.383 which lists a skin and skull. This implies that a skull had been sighted. Alternatively, it was inferred from the original description .

Cranial measurements were not provided by Miklouho-Maclay other than premolar length, and a vague measurement of molar length. Skull dimensions measured from his plate 20 from an original, unbound copy of the journal are given in Table 4 .