Genus Petauroides Thomas, 1888

Museums

Regional Maps

• Petauroides Thomas, O. 1888. Catalogue of the Marsupialia and Monotremata in the Collection of the British Museum (Natural History). London : British Museum xiii 401 pp. 28 pls. [3 Nov. 1888] [163] [Schoinobates Lesson, 1842 (=Petaurista Link, 1795) has been used incorrectly for this genus since Iredale, T. & Troughton, E. le G. 1934. A check-list of the mammals recorded from Australia. Mem. Aust. Mus. 6: i–xii 1–122; see McKay, G.M. 1982. Nomenclature of the gliding possum genera Petaurus and Petauroides (Marsupialia: Petauridae). Australian Mammalogy 5: 37–39].

  Type species:

   Didelphis volans Kerr, 1792 by monotypy.

  Secondary source:

   Iredale, T. & Troughton, E. le G. 1934. A check-list of the mammals recorded from Australia. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 6: i-xii 1-122; McKay, G.M. 1982. Nomenclature of the gliding possum genera Petaurus and Petauroides (Marsupialia: Petauridae). Australian Mammalogy 5: 37-39.
• Voluccella Bechstein, J.M. 1800. Thomas Pennant's allgemeine Uebersicht der vierfüssigen Thiere.Aus dem englischen übersetzt aud mit Anmerkungen und Zusätzen versehen von J.M. Bechstein. Weimar : Industrie-Comptoir's Vol. 2 xi 323-768 pls 35-54. [351] [non Voluccella Bechstein, 1800; non Voluccella Fabricius, 1794].

  Type species:

   Didelphis volans Kerr, 1792 by original designation (Voluccella nigra proposed originally, = Didelphis volucccella, sensu Meyer 1793, = Petauroides volans, see Maloney & Harris (2008)).
• Petaurista Desmarest, A.G. 1820. Encyclopédie Méthodique. Livr. 89. Mammalogie ou description des espèces de mammifères. Premiere partie, contenant les ordres des bimanes, des quadrumanes et des carnassiers. Paris : V. Agasse 1-276 pp. suppl. pls 1-14. [268] [non Petaurista Link, 1795 (Rodentia); the Thomas, O. 1888. Catalogue of the Marsupialia and Monotremata in the Collection of the British Museum (Natural History). London : British Museum xiii 401 pp. 28 pls [3 Nov. 1888] designation of P. taguanoides Desmarest, 1818 as type species antedates that of Petaurus australis Shaw, 1791 by Iredale, T. & Troughton, E. le G. 1934. A check-list of the mammals recorded from Australia. Mem. Aust. Mus. 6: i–xii 1–122].

  Type species:

   Petaurus taguanoides Desmarest, 1818 by subsequent designation, see Thomas, O. 1888. Catalogue of the Marsupialia and Monotremata in the Collection of the British Museum (Natural History). London : British Museum xiii 401 pp. 28 pls. [3 Nov. 1888].

  Secondary source:

   Thomas, O. 1888. Catalogue of the Marsupialia and Monotremata in the Collection of the British Museum (Natural History). London : British Museum xiii 401 pp. 28 pls. [3 Nov. 1888]; Iredale, T. & Troughton, E. le G. 1934. A check-list of the mammals recorded from Australia. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 6: i-xii 1-122.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• McKay, G.M. 1988. Petauridae. pp. 87-97 in Walton, D.W. (ed.). Zoological Catalogue of Australia Volume 5. Mammalia. Canberra : Australian Government Publishing Service x 274 pp.

Introduction

This genus has long been considered to contain the single species P. volans (Kerr, 1792) with two subspecies, P. volans volans ranging from VIC to around Rockhampton, QLD, and P. volans minor (Collett, 1887) north of Rockhampton. However, mounting evidence has shown that it likely contains at least two taxa, and possibly three, that could be recognised at the species level. Jackson & Groves (2015) recognised three species, P. volans, P. minor and in addition P. armillatus Thomas 1923, occurring between northern NSW/southern QLD and Rockhampton, however they only cited personal communication with the late Kenneth Aplin and a brief conference abstract by Arbogast et al. (2011) as their support. More recently McGregor et al. (2020) presented molecular and morphological results that supported the assertion of Jackson & Groves (2015), but their sampling did not include any specimens from NSW, the largest part of P. volans range, and they noted that "additional surveys should be undertaken to obtain a more complete understanding of genetic structure across the range of greater gliders.". Work is currently underway by Kyle Armstrong and Brian Arbogast to address this situation (personal communication) and as such we recognise P. minor as a distinct species but retain P. volans armillatus as a junior synonym of P. volans until their work is completed.

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, Qld, Vic: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Flinders (FLI), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP) ; Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Wet Tropics (WT)

General References

Arbogast, B., Aplin, K., Armstrong, K., Ogawa, L. & Taylor, A. 2011. Cryptic diversity in an iconic Australian marsupial: the greater glider, Petauroides volans. Joint Meeting of the 57th Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society with the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists. Portland State University, Oregon. USA. 24–28 June 2011 (2011). pp.

Jackson, S. & Groves, C. 2015. Taxonomy of Australian Mammals. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 520 pp. [114]

Maloney, K.S. & Harris, J.M. 2008. Early natural history of the Greater Glider, Petauroides volans (Kerr, 1792). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 129: 39-55

McGregor, D.C., Padovan, A., Georges, A., Krockenberger, A., Yoon, H.-J. & Youngentob, K.N. 2020. Genetic evidence supports three previously described species of greater glider, Petauroides volans, P. minor, and P. armillatus. Scientific Reports

History of changes