Trichosurus caninus nigrans Le Souef, 1916

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

Trichosurus caninus nigrans Le Souef, 1916

Aust. Zool. 1: 64, fig. 1. (13 March 1916).

Common name. Short-eared Brush-tailed Possum.

Current name. Trichosurus caninus (W. Ogilby, 1836) , following Jackson & Groves (2015).

Holotype. M.2301 by subsequent determination.Adult male, skull ( Fig. 24 ), study skin, collector not given, presented by Council, Zoological Society of NSW, registered June 1913, marked in register as “ Trichosurus caninus, var. nigrans Le S. , type of var.”, locality given as “ Tweed River ”.

Condition. Cranium in good condition; missing right pterygoid process, wire holes drilled through both condyles and in both glenoid fossae. Study skin complete and in good condition.

Type locality. Tweed River, northeastern NSW, Australia.

Paratypes. (2, by subsequent designation): M.2557 and M.2558, both male, study skins and skulls. Both bear labels with “ var. nigrans ” “Tweed district” and were registered in May 1915, after receipt from the Council, Zoological Society of NSW. Neither specimen is labelled with type indication or collector details .

Comments. In describing this taxon, Le Souef (1916) does not indicate the number of specimens examined but he states that “the type” is in the AM, thereby implying a holotype, but without citing a specimen registration number. He also refers to “skins” that had previously been preserved in alcohol, as being referable to his proposed subspecies without indicating whether he regarded them to be part of the type series. The type locality is not indicated in the original account, but the distribution is given as “heavy coastal scrubs in north-eastern NSW and southern Queensland.” The study, as a whole, including other forms of Trichosurus , is stated to be based on a large series of specimens. Neither of the specimens we believe to be paratypes are labelled as such, either on specimen labels or in the M Register, but all were received from the Council of the Zoological Society, i.e. Taronga Zoo of which Le Souef was the Director, and presumably would have been seen by him.

Figures

Figure 24. AM M.2301, holotype skull of Trichosurus caninus nigrans Le Souef, 1916. (Photography by Sally Cowan).