NOTES ON THE PHALANGERID MARSUPIAL GENUS SPILOCUSCUS, WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES FROM PAPUA

Abstract

A new small-bodied species of spotted cuscus is described from Biak and Supiori, neighboring oceanic islands in Cenderawasih Bay, northwest New Guinea. The nonvolant mammal fauna of Biak-Supiori is almost entirely endemic. The geographic origin of another insular species of the genus (Spilocuscus kraemeri) is also discussed: S. kraemeri is a distinctive species known only from the Admiralty Islands but, due to its putative absence from the fossil record of those islands, it is thought to have been introduced there from an unknown source population in prehistoric times. Based on new evidence, we suggest that kraemeri is either native to the Admiralty Islands, or originally differentiated on the large island of New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago.