Phascogale tapoatafa ( Meyer, 1793 )

Have, Ten, 2015, Taxonomic revision of Phascogale tapoatafa (Meyer, 1793) (Dasyuridae; Marsupialia), including descriptions of two new subspecies and confirmation of P. pirata Thomas, 1904 as a ‘ Top End’ endemic, Zootaxa 4055 (1), pp. 1-73 : 23

Phascogale tapoatafa ( Meyer, 1793)

Phascogale tapoatafa featured as the 'Tapoa Tafa' (or 'Tapha') in White's 'Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales' (1790), an adaptation of the local Aboriginal name tapoatafa . This name was first used in the formal combination Viverra tapoatafa Meyer, 1793 . The species group names penicillata Shaw, 1800 , and tafa White, 1803, were proposed on the basis of the same original account and thus are objective junior synonyms of tapoatafa Meyer, 1793 . Apart from pirata Thomas, 1904 , there are no other available species level names for members of the P. tapoatafa group.

Previous workers have recognized only one subspecies apart from the nominotypical form— P. tapoatafa pirata Thomas 1904 , applied to some or all of the various northern Australian populations (e.g. Iredale & Troughton 1934; Tate 1947; Troughton 1967; Cuttle 1983, Soderquist 1995a). We recognize P. pirata as a very distinct species and distinguish three subspecies within P. tapoatafa , two of them newly described herein.