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
Antechinus stuartii
Macleay, 1841
Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (ser. 1)
8: 242, plate vii. (
1 December 1841
).
Common name
. Brown
Antechinus
.
Current name
.
Antechinus stuartii
Macleay, 1841
; following Jackson & Groves (2015).
Neotype
. M.5294, designated by
Wakefield
& Warneke (1967). Male, skull, body in alc., presented by
K. A. Hindwood
, registered on
8 August 1932
. Collection date not given.
Condition
. Cranium and dentaries complete, body in alc. in good condition.
Type locality
. Waterfall, Royal National Park, Sydney, NSW,
Australia
.
Comments
.
Neotype
designated by
Wakefield
& Warneke (1967), who state that Macleay’s original material cannot be located. However,
Macleay (1841)
states that the only specimen was lost and that his description was based solely on the notes and drawings of Surgeon Stuart.
Macleay (1842)
corrected his earlier description of the dental formula and determined that the species was a marsupial, not an Insectivore as earlier thought, based on his examination of a skeleton subsequently obtained and prepared by Stuart; he did not indicate whether this specimen included a skin, although we assume that it did not. A skin and skull (with no indication of a skeleton) currently in the collection (PA.602) was originally entered by Palmer as “
Antechinus stuartii
, North Shore” and indicated as a gallery mount, though with no details of donor or collector. A subsequent amendment to this entry states “flavipes, type of stuarti”; the author of this entry is unknown but it likely occurred during Troughton’s employment or earlier. The unpublished list of
Troughton (1956)
lists this specimen as the “
holotype
” of
stuartii
but this allocation is refuted by Macleay’s original account that denied the existence of a voucher specimen. The type status of PA.602 remains unsubstantiated. We are not aware of any published statement by Troughton that would constitute
neotype
designation of this specimen.