Phalanger mimicus

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

DESCRIPTION: Critical skull dimensions are listed in table 2. The most notable feature of the skull is the shape of the zygomatic arches. In all other species of Phalanger the arches reach their widest point at the caudal end, near the suture between the jugal and the squamosal, and converge toward the midline of the skull rostrally. In P. mimicus the arches run parallel to the midline, or even diverge rostrally, giving the skull a different shape (fig. 3). In general the skull shows less development of the supraorbital, parietal, and sagittal crests than is seen in other species of the genus; indeed, it is not unusual for the parietal crests to remain unfused, even in very old individuals. The facial extent of the lachrymal is comparatively small, as in P. intercastellanus. The frontals are deeply penetrated by the nasal bones; the nasals do not taper abruptly at their caudal extremity, but are rounded (fig. 4). The teeth are remarkably small, even given the overall small size of the animals. In this respect P. mimicus is similar to the rare montane Telefomin cuscus, P. matanim (Flannery, 1987). The welldeveloped postparacrista on M 1, with its pronounced buccal kink (fig. 5), is seen in several species of Phalanger, but not in either P. orientalis or P. intercastellanus, the two species within which P. mimicus was formerly reduced to synonymy. The tail wedge of P. mimicus is short, as in P. intercastellanus. Adult males of the Australian population have upper parts that are gray, with a well­defined dark dorsal stripe finishing well short of the haunches, and silver­tipped guard hairs. Three specimens, including the holotypes of P. orientalis mimicus (BMNH 11.11.11.93) and P. orientalis peninsulae (AMNH 108905), have an off­white pelage with dark guard hairs. This coloration is often seen in old males of both P. orientalis and P. intercastellanus. With the exception of aged specimens, however, P. mimicus appears to show little or no sex­based color dimorphism, at least in its Australian populations. The situation is less clear for the New Guinea population, because only one adult male, the aforementioned BMNH 11.11.11.93, is known. Females of the New Guinea population have a striking reddish­brown pelage, which was one of the characteristics used by Tate to describe P. microdon. Juvenile males also show this coloration, but given the general tendency toward a reddish pelage in juveniles of both P. orientalis and P. intercastellanus, this may be of limited significance in distinguishing between the species. It is worth noting that, unlike the condition seen in Australian P. mimicus, the dorsal stripe continues almost to the base of the tail, albeit becoming more diffuse caudally. The question of whether the differences in pelage between the Trans­Fly and Cape York populations warrant taxonomic recognition cannot be answered without a larger sample from southwest New Guinea.

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

Phalanger microdon Tate and Archbold, 1935. Phalanger orientalis peninsulae Tate, 1945.

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

Conservation: CITES – Appendix II as P. orientalis.

Sumber: Order Diprotodontia

Distribution: S New Guinea, from Mimika River (Prov. of Papua) east to Mt. Bosavi and Oriomo River; perhaps Aru Isls; Cape York Peninsula (Australia).

Sumber: Order Diprotodontia

Habitat. Secondary forests, gallery forest near rivers, gardens, and some degraded habitat in New Guinea and rainforest, semi-deciduous mesophyll vine forest, notophyll vine forest, and evergreen notophyll vine forest in Australia.

Sumber: Phalangeridae