Phalanger mimicus

Distribution. New Guinea S lowlands and Aru Is and in the Iron Range-Mcllwraith Range block of rainforest on E Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia.

Sumber: Phalangeridae

HABITAT: Rand and Brass (1940) provide descriptions of the southern New Guinea region that contains the collecting localities for P. mimicus. In the area along the coast, south of the estuary of the Fly River (which includes the Oriomo River: fig. 1, locality 62), the predominant vegetation type is scrub savanna. Rainforest occurs chiefly as fringing strips of no more than 100 – 200 m in depth along creeks and streams, and in isolated patches on ridge tops (fig. 6). The rainforest is described by Rand and Brass as ‘‘ poor and light’ ’, with some areas that ‘‘ could only be described as dense brush’ ’. Savanna trees, including Acacia and Tristania, intrude into the rainforest. The savannas are dominated by Melaleuca; on ridges this genus mixes with Tristania, Eucaplyptus, and Acacia to form savanna forests with a thin, high canopy and a ground cover of grasses. During the rainy season the flat savannas become boggy, and can flood up to a foot (Brass and Rand, 1940). In contrast, the areas around the Palmer River Camp (fig. 1, locality 63) and the Black River Junction (fig. 1, locality 64) in the northern part of Western Province are typified by steep ridges rising up to 100 m above sea level (Brass and Rand, 1940). The vegetation type is classic lowland rainforest rich in epiphytes in both the lower layers and the canopy (fig. 7). The Australian localities for P. mimicus are described by Brass (1953), and bear striking similarities in vegetation to those seen in southern New Guinea. At Shepheard’s Battery site, on the Upper Peach River (fig. 1, locality 60), Brass reported that specimens of P. mimicus were ‘‘ found in numbers’ ’ in the rainforest fringing Bonanza Creek. Rainforest was confined to the margins of the creek, while the remainder of the flats and surrounding ridges were covered in open savanna forests of box, bloodwood, and ironbark trees. In the Iron Range (fig. 1, locality 59) lowland rainforests predominated (fig. 8), though there were still patches of open forest in which rainforest was limited to creek margins and gullies. As with the Fly River basin, there was seasonal inundation of the rainforests on the floodplains, in some areas to depths of 6 – 10 ft (Brass, 1953).

Sumber: Systematic Revision Within the Phalanger orientalis Complex (Diprotodontia, Phalangeridae): A Third Species of Lowland Gray Cuscus from New Guinea and Australia