Dromicia unicolor Krefft, 1863

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 : 402

Dromicia unicolor Krefft, 1863

Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1863 (1): 49. (May 1863).

Common name. Eastern Pygmy-possum.

Current name. Cercartetus nanus unicolor ( Krefft, 1863) , following Jackson & Groves (2015).

Holotype. Originally in the AM Collection. Krefft (1864a) stated that specimen “b” of his catalogue is the “type of the species”, given as an adult female, originally in alc., presented by Mr A. Butt, collected from near St Leonards, Sydney. It is possible that the holotype was the “ Dromicia unicolor ” from Mr A. Butt listed in public donations to the AM during 1862 ( Krefft, 1864c).

Type locality. St. Leonards, North Shore, Sydney, NSW.

? Paratype. whereabouts unknown, specimen “a”, adult male from Sydney (no other data), listed by Krefft (1864a).

Comments. The fate of Krefft’s original material has not been determined and we have not found any clear indication that his specimens were sighted after his curatorship. Although Krefft’s original description of dentition could be read as being based on either one or two specimens, it was based on two specimens as subsequently indicated by Krefft (1864a). It is conceivable that neither specimen was ever registered in the collection. We have not located any entries in the Palmer Register that might be Krefft’s specimens, nor found any likely candidates in the AM Collection .