Schlegel's Ringbeutler
| Schlegel's Ringbeutler | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pseudochirulus schlegeli | ||||||||||||
| ( Jentink , 1884) |
Schlegel's Ringbeutler ( Pseudochirulus schlegeli ) is a bag mammal from the Ringbeutler family . The type epithet honors the German zoologist Hermann Schlegel .
features
So far only information about the males is available. The fewer than ten known specimens have a head-trunk length of 210 to 230 mm, a tail length of 210 to 250 mm, a hind foot length of 29.3 to 33.0 mm, an ear length of 15.7 to 19.2 mm and a weight of 244 to 305 g. The body is light and slim. The thick, woolly fur is overall dull, silvery-gray. The underside is yellowish with a reddish brown tint. An indistinct stripe can be seen on the back. There are light spots below the ears. The extreme end of the silvery-gray tail is hairless.
Occurrence, habitat and way of life
Schlegel's Ringbeutler is endemic to the Arfak Mountains in western New Guinea . The species lives in montane moss forests at altitudes between 750 m and 1,900 m. Little is known about their way of life.
Systematics
For a long time Schlegel's Ringbeutler was only known from the holotype , a male, from the Arfak Mountains on the Vogelkop Peninsula, which the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden had acquired in April 1879. Several specimens that were subsequently assigned to this taxon are now assigned to other species. In 1992 the zoologists Guy Musser and Helmut G. Sommer discovered a second specimen in the Jules Verreaux collection in the American Museum of Natural History in New York . A comparison carried out by Tim Flannery between Pseudochirulus schlegeli and the taxon Pseudocheirus lewisi described by Guy Dollman in 1930 finally came to the conclusion that both taxa represent the same species. In addition, there are two other specimens from the Siwi and Ditschi region in the Arfak Mountains in New York, an unregistered skeleton from the Hatam region in Genoa and two adult males that were shot in the Mokwam region in the Arfak Mountains in October 1992 Collection of the Australian Museum . The holotype of Pseudocheirus lewisi is kept in the Natural History Museum in London.
status
The IUCN classifies Schlegel's Ringbeutler in the category "endangered" ( vulnerable ). The main threat comes from habitat destruction and overhunting.
literature
- Flannery, TF 1995. Mammals of New Guinea . 2nd Edition. Chatswood, New South Wales: Reed Books, 568 pp. ISBN 0-7301-0411-7