Philander opossum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Voss, Robert S., 2022, An Annotated Checklist Of Recent Opossums (Mammalia: Didelphidae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2022 (455), pp. 1-77 : 39

Philander opossum (Linnaeus, 1758)

TYPE MATERIAL AND TYPE LOCALITY: RMNH 25421a, the lectotype (designated by Hershkovitz, 1976), is a fluid-preserved adult female with pouch young collected in Surinam.

SYNONYMS: frenatus Olfers, 1818 ; superciliaris Olfers, 1818.

DISTRIBUTION: As currently recognized (see Remarks), Philander opossum occurs in eastern Amazonia, including the Guianas and northern Brazil; in Brazil, this species occurs in Amapá, Amazonas (north of the Amazon and east of the Rio Negro), Pará, and Roraima. No published range map accurately shows the range of this species as restricted by recent revisionary research.

REMARKS: Patton and da Silva’s (2008) concept of Philander opossum included several taxa herein recognized as distinct species, including P. canus , P. melanurus , and P. vossi (formerly P. pallidus ; see below). In fact, none of these taxa are closely related to P. opossum , which appears, instead, to belong to a monophyletic group that includes P. andersoni and P. mcilhennyi (see Voss et al., 2018). The identity of frenatus as a subjective synonym of P. opossum was discussed by Voss and Angermann (2018; in Voss et al., 2018). The identity of superciliaris as a subjective synonym was fixed by neotype selection (Voss et al., 2018).