An introduction to Marmosops (Marsupialia: Didelphidae), with the description of a new species from Bolivia and notes on the taxonomy and distribution of other bolivian forms

VOOS, R.S.; TARIFA, T.; YENSEN, E. 2004. An introduction to Marmosops (Marsupialia: Didelphidae), with the description of a new species from Bolivia and notes on the taxonomy and distribution of other bolivian forms. American Museum Novitates 3466:1-40.

Abstract. In order to facilitate much-needed revisionary research on Marmosops, we summarize the currently accepted species-level taxonomy, provide full bibliographic citations for original descriptions of all 36 included nominal taxa, map their type localities, and list their type material (if known). We rediagnose the genus Marmosops, compare it with three other didelphid genera to which misidentified specimens of Marmosops have often been referred, and review the phylogenetic evidence that Marmosops is monophyletic. After describing a new species from the eastern-slope montane forest of Bolivia, we review the taxonomy of other Bolivian congeners based on morphological characters and published cytochrome-b gene sequences. Among our taxonomic results, we synonymize albiventris Tate (1931), dorothea Thomas (1911), and yungasensis Tate (1931) with M. noctivagus (Tschudi, 1845). By contrast, M. ocellatus (Tate, 1931), currently considered a synonym of dorothea, appears to be a valid species. Whereas published range maps of Bolivian species of Marmosops are demonstrably based on misidentified material and show little correspondence with known environmental factors, locality records based on specimens examined for this report make much more eco-geographic sense.