Does anyone know whether the correct binomen for the monito del monte is Dromiciops gliroides or Dromiciops australis? Looking at the taxonomic history of the species, it looks like australis was named a year before gliroides, and the holotype was never lost, so why do all publications seem to use the name D. gliroides? Was there some ruling from the ICZN or something that suppressed D. australis?
The correct binomen is Dromiciops gliroides, because Philippi described the same species in 1893 as Didelphys australis, a name preoccupied by Didelphys australis Goldfuss, 1809 (= “Pennants New Holland opossum, a phalangerid”, according to Hershkovitz, Ph. 1999. Dromiciops gliroides Thomas, 1894, last of the Microbiotheria [Marsupialia], with a review of the family Microbiotheriidae. Fieldiana [Zool.], N.S., No. 93, page 26; the identity of the latter species remains obscure, though).
Apparently, Alfred Gardner (1993. Order Microbiotheria. in: Wilson, D.E. & D.M. Reeder eds. Mammal Species of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.) was the first to note this nomenclatural problem (cf. Pinto, C.M. & A.L. Gardner 2004. Marsupials from Argentina: comments on Ojeda and Monjeau [1995]. Mastozoología Neotropical, 11[2]: 257–260; attached).
gliroides! You can also check in the new Mammals of the World book, recently published.
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