Monodelphis (Monodelphis) palliolata (Osgood, 1914)

Voss, Robert S., 2022, An Annotated Checklist Of Recent Opossums (Mammalia: Didelphidae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2022 (455), pp. 1-77 : 25

Monodelphis (Monodelphis) palliolata

(Osgood, 1914)

TYPE MATERIAL AND TYPE LOCALITY: FMNH 20524 , the holotype by original designation, consists of the skin and skull of an adult male collected at San Juan de Colón (8.03° N, 72.27° W; ca. 760 m), Táchira state, Venezuela .

SYNONYMS: None.

DISTRIBUTION: Monodelphis palliolata occurs north and west of the Orinoco River in Venezuela, and it probably also occurs in eastern Colombia. Collection localities for this species include those recognized as such by Pine and Handley (2008: map 44) as well as those they attributed to “species A” (Pine and Handley, 2008: map 38). This species occurs in both rainforest and savannas.

REMARKS: For an emended description of Monodelphis palliolata and morphological comparisons with closely related congeners, see Pavan et al. (2012). Specimens collected in the Llanos are paler than otherwise similar specimens collected in adjacent forested regions, and this pale savanna phenotype was formerly identified as M. orinoci by Venezuelan authors. However, orinoci is a synonym of M. brevicaudata sensu stricto ( Voss et al., 2001; Pavan et al., 2012), so the savanna phenotype lacks a name. Pine and Handley (2008: 106) referred to this form as “ Monodelphis [species A],” but examined specimens exhibit the distinctive caudal pelage traits and color pattern of M. palliolata , and phylogenetic analyses of cytochrome b sequence data suggest that “species A” is nothing more than an ecotype of the present species ( Pavan et al., 2014).