Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney
Author
Parnaby, Harry E.
Author
Ingleby, Sandy
Author
Divljan, Anja
text
Records of the Australian Museum
2017
2017-10-06
69
5
277
420
http://dx.doi.org/10.3853/j.2201-4349.69.2017.1653
journal article
10.3853/j.2201-4349.69.2017.1653
2201-4349
5237800
68F315FF-3FEB-410E-96EC-5F494510F440
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.