Antechinus brevicaudatus Krefft, 1872b

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 : 401

Antechinus brevicaudatus Krefft, 1872b incertae sedis

The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (new series) vol. XIV, nu. 644, p. 554, col. 1. (2 November 1872) .

Common name. The “Short-tailed Antechinus ” of Krefft.

Current name. Indeterminate, presumably Antechinus , perhaps Sminthopsis .

Holotype. Krefft’s original specimen is probably PA.661, sex not determined, skin mount. The only data in the Palmer Register are the original entry by Palmer: “ Antechinus brevicaudatus , King’s Island Bass Strait, Mounted”. The collector, donor and date are not given but Krefft (1868c) mentions that he had “recently” received a new Antechinus from the Bass Strait Islands . PA.661 was not located in the AM Collection in 2014 nor was it sighted in inventories of the past few decades.

Type locality. Probably King Island, Bass Strait ( Krefft, 1872b).

Comments. We have not located this name in the literature but it could be regarded as a valid description. Krefft’s verbatim account is:

“Smallest of the tribe—supposing that my specimen, which is still unique, is adult. The skull is not in a condition to be examined. General colour dark, sepia brown, almost black, tail about an inch in length; fur very coarse. Found on some of the islands of Bass’s Straits, I believe King’s Island.”

The identity of this taxon cannot be determined until material assigned by Krefft is located, but it is doubtful if such material, possibly a single specimen, has survived. However, a specimen index card, written in old writing likely in the first decade of the 20th century, states: “ Antechinus brevicaudata [sic] skull, no data”. Possible contenders for the identity of this entity, other than it being a valid but unrecognized taxon, include A. swainsonii ( Waterhouse, 1840) or A. minimus (É. Geoffroy, 1803b) and possibly Sminthopsis leucopus (J. Gray, 1842) . Krefft (1872b) based his concepts of Antechinus taxa on Gould (1863b), and recognized A. swainsonii and A. affinus ( Gray, 1841) (= A. minimus (É. Geoffroy, 1803b)) , both of which Krefft listed as being from Tasmania.