Myoictis wallacii Gray 1858

• Main Authors: Russell A. Mittermeier, Don E. Wilson
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Lynx Edicions 2015
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Mammalia; Dasyuromorphia; Dasyuridae; Myoictis; Myoictis wallacii; Triton; Triton Bay
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6602749; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6602749

8. Wallace's Three-striped Dasyure Myoictis wallacii French: Dasyure de Wallace / German: Wallace-Streifenbeutelmaus / Spanish: Dasiuro de tres rayas de Wallace Other common names: Wallace's Dasyure Taxonomy. Myoictis wallacii Gray, 1858, “ Aru Island,” New Guinea. In 1866, H. Schlegel noted a specimen collected by A. R. Wallace on the Aru Islands that had been described by J. E. Gray as M. wallacii. Schlegel believed that this animal, a juvenile with incomplete dentition, showed affinity with his species Phascogalea:: thorbeckiana and did not warrant separate placement. Schlegel suggested that only differences in coat color existed between animals from Triton Bay (melas), Salawati (thorbeckiana), and Aru (wallacit). There was further taxonomic confusion in the following decades as a string of specimens, some named as new species, gradually were collected; some had three striking black stripes on the back, and a few others were melanistic, like the original type for M. melas. In 1947, G. H. H. Tate placed Myoictis as a genus within the Dasyurinae, recognizing two species. The first was M. melas, to which he referred thorbeckiana, bruijnii, senex, and biirgersi. The second was M. wallacii, to which he referred pilicauda. In 2005, a comprehensive examination of museum material suggested that M. melas encompassed a range of forms from numerous localities across New Guinea, M. wallacii was evidently distinct and present in several locations (Aru Islands and southern mainland New Guinea), M. wavicus deserved full species status (rather than as subspecies within M. melas), and a new species, M. leucura, warranted recognition. Genetic (mtDNA and nDNA) divergences supported the morphological study, finding M. wallacii to be deeply divergent from the three other Myoictis species (M. wallacii to congeners 9:3-12% at the mtDNA cytochrome-b gene). M. wallacii was genetically positioned with strong support assister to a clade containing two species of Myoictis (leucura and wavicus); M. melas was positioned as sister to a ...