Chironectes minimus (Zimmermann, 1780)

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 : 33

Chironectes minimus (Zimmermann, 1780)

TYPE MATERIAL AND TYPE LOCALITY: No type material is known to exist. This species is based on Buffon’s description of an animal from Cayenne (4.93° N, 52.33° W), French Guiana.

SYNONYMS: argyrodytes Dickey, 1928; bresslaui Pohle, 1927; cayennensis Turton, 1800; guianensis Kerr, 1792; gujanensis Link, 1795; langsdorffi Boitard, 1842; palmata Daudin, 1802; panamensis Goldman, 1914; paraguensis Kerr, 1792; saricovienna Shaw, 1800; variegatus Olfers, 1818; yapock Desmarest, 1820.

DISTRIBUTION: Chironectes minimus occurs from southern Mexico throughout most of the rainforested lowlands of Central America to South America; in South America it has been reported from most humid-tropical and -subtropical lowland biomes from Colombia southward to eastern Paraguay, northeastern Argentina (Misiones), and southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul). Recent collections from the Cerrado and the Pantanal were mapped by Brandão et al. (2015) and Antunes et al. (2021), respectively. Most range maps (e.g., Stein and Patton, 2008a: map 5) suggest that C. minimus does not occur in central Amazonia, but several central Amazonian specimens and observations indicate that it probably occurs throughout the region ( Voss et al., 2019).

REMARKS: The emended generic description provided by Voss and Jansa (2009) serves equally as a description of this species. Although several of the names listed above as synonyms have been recognized as valid subspecies by authors (e.g., Stein and Patton, 2008a), the absence of substantial genetic variation among geographic populations of water opossums (Voss and Jansa, 2018) suggests that a trinomial nomenclature is unnecessary.