Philander opossum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Material examined.

Costa Rica • Puntarenas Province, Karen Mogensen Wildlife Refuge; 09°52'05"N, 085°03'32"W; 290 m alt.; 05.02.2019; direct observation .

Identification.

Medium-sized opossum, with nocturnal habits. Characterised by a white chin with darker upper labia, whitish belly and feet and a nearly uniform greyish brown dorsum. The ears are large and naked, rims are black, and a pale spot is present on forehead at medial base of ears. The tail is relatively small. Nose, lips, toes, and a region above chin are pink (Wainwright 2007). Recorded in various habitat types in the study area. Some authors split P. opossum into eight species and consider Costa Rican populations as P. melanurus (Voss et al. 2018; Reid and Gόmez Zamora 2022).