Pseudomys delicatulus Gould 1842

Pseudomys delicatulus Gould 1842, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1842: 13.

Type Locality: Australia, Northern Territory, Port Essington (as restricted by Thomas’s lectotype designation; see Mahoney and Richardson, 1988:173).

Vernacular Names: Delicate Pseudomys.

Synonyms: Pseudomys mimulus Thomas 1926; Pseudomys pumilus Troughton 1936 .

Distribution: Torresian distribution in N Australia; N coastal region from near Port Hedland in Western Australia to Bundaberg area in Queensland, including some nearshore islands (Watts and Aslin, 1981:188; Braithwaite and Covacevich, 1995:593). SC Papua New Guinea, Morehead region on the trans-Fly plains (Flannery, 1995 a; Waithman, 1979).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Electrophoretic data and spermatozoal morphology supported a close relationship between P. delicatulus, P. novaehollandiae, and P. pilligaensis (Breed, 1983; Briscoe et al., 1981). Sperm head morphology documented by Breed (2000) in context of distinguishing P. delicatulus from P. patrius, and revealing significant geographic variation within the former. Reviewed by Watts and Aslin (1981) and Braithwaite and Covacevich (1995). There is no evidence of range reduction in Australia from the time of European settlement (Braithwaite and Covacevich, 1995). Palmer (2001) described some new collection sites of P. delicatulus in Queensland representing range extensions. Pseudomys delicatulus is one of 17 Australian species of mammals that are also found in the Trans-Fly region of SC New Guinea and nowhere else on the island (Norris and Musser, 2001).