Marmosops (Marmosops) noctivagus (Tschudi, 1844)

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 : 47

Marmosops (Marmosops) noctivagus

(Tschudi, 1845)

TYPE MATERIAL AND TYPE LOCALITY: No type material was designated in Tschudi’s original description, but three syntypes are said to be at Neuchâtel ( MHNN 94.1008A, 94.1008B, 94.1008C; Serrano-Villavicencio et al., 2020), and a fourth is in Berlin ( ZMB 3375). The Berlin specimen (consisting of the skin and skull of an adult female) is the one upon which Tate (1933) based his concept of the species, and so would be a logical choice as lectotype. Tschudi’s subsequently published travelogue and correspondence—cited by Tate (1933: 154–155) and Serrano-Villavicencio et al. (2020) —suggest that his type series was collected near “Vitoc” (= Pueblo Nuevo: ca. 11.17° S, 75.27° W; ca. 500 m), Junín department, Peru.

SYNONYMS: albiventris Tate, 1931 ; collega Thomas, 1920; dorothea Thomas, 1911 ; keaysi J.A. Allen, 1900; leucastrus Thomas, 1927; lugendus Thomas, 1927; neglectus Osgood, 1915; politus Cabrera, 1913; stollei Miranda-Ribeiro, 1936; and yungasensis Tate, 1931.

DISTRIBUTION: Marmosops noctivagus occurs in the Andes (usually below 2000 m) from Ecuador to Bolivia, and in the Amazonian lowlands as far eastward as the left bank of the Tapajós (Gardner and Creighton, 2008b: map 30).

REMARKS: Marmosops noctivagus includes several deeply divergent mtDNA haplogroups whose taxonomic status remains to be determined ( Díaz-Nieto et al., 2016b). The nominal taxon purui Miller, 1913, was listed among the putative synonyms of M. noctivagus by Voss and Jansa (2009), but craniodental traits of the type and paratype better match the morphology of M. caucae (see above).