Species Macrotis lagotis (Reid, 1837)
Bilby
- Perameles lagotis Reid, J. 1837. Description of a new species of the genus Perameles (P. lagotis). Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1836: 129-131 [publication date established from Sclater, P.L. 1893. List of the dates of receipt from the Printers of the sheets of the Society's 'Proceedings' from 1831 to 1859 inclusive. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1893: 435–440 [437]] [129].
Type data:
Holotype BMNH 55.12.24.68 & 50.11.22.31 ♀ skin (55.12.24.68) & skull (50.11.22.31), Swan River, WA (as Van Diemen's Land).Type locality references:
Anon. 1839. [A letter from Alexander Gordon, Esq. read]. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1838: 149. - Macrotis lagotis cambrica Troughton, E. le G. 1932. A revision of the rabbit-bandicoots. Family Peramelidae, genus Macrotis. The Australian Zoologist 7: 219-236 [230] [extinct].
Type data:
Holotype AM M677 ♂ skin & skull, Bathurst, NSW. - Macrotis lagotis grandis Troughton, E. le G. 1932. A revision of the rabbit-bandicoots. Family Peramelidae, genus Macrotis. The Australian Zoologist 7: 219-236 [229].
Type data:
Holotype SAMA M5225 ♂ skin but no skull, Nalpa, SA (as Nalpa, Lake Alexandrina district). - Macrotis lagotis interjecta Troughton, E. le G. 1932. A revision of the rabbit-bandicoots. Family Peramelidae, genus Macrotis. The Australian Zoologist 7: 219-236 [227] [extinct].
Type data:
Holotype AM M4351 ♂ skin & skull, Rawlinna, WA (as Rawlinna, Trans-Australian Railway, Western Australia). - Thalacomys nigripes Jones, F.W. 1923. The marsupial genus Thalacomys. A review of the rabbit-bandicoots; with the description of a new species. Records of the South Australian Museum (Adelaide) 2: 333-352 [347] [extinct].
Type data:
Holotype BMNH 25.10.8.1 & A378.31 ♂ skin (25.10.8.1) & skull (RCSE A378.31*), Ooldea, SA (as 'a restricted area around Ooldea Soak'). - Thalacomys sagitta Thomas, O. 1905. On some Australasian mammals. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 7 16: 422-428 [426].
Type data:
Holotype BMNH 3.5.21.2 ♂ skin & skull, Killalpaninna, SA (as Killalpanima, east of Lake Eyre).Type locality references:
Finlayson, H.H. 1933. On mammals from the Lake Eyre Basin. Part 1. - The Dasyuridae. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 57: 195-202 [197] (in correcting the same locality for Sminthopsis crassicaudata centralis Thomas).
Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy
- Jackson, S. & Groves, C. 2015. Taxonomy of Australian Mammals. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 520 pp. [90-91] (discussion of subspecies synonymies)
Generic Combinations
- Macrotis lagotis (Reid, 1837).
- Thylacomys lagotis (Reid, 1837).
Taxonomic Decision for Subspecies Arrangement
- 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
Introduction
Subspecies not recognised in Mahoney & Ride (1988: 44) or Jackson & Grove (2015), synonymies followed Iredale & Troughton (1934: 20).
Distribution
States
New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia
Extra Distribution Information
Once inhabiting the arid and semi-arid regions throughout most of the Australian mainland south of about latitude 18° south, it is now confined to the deserts of central Australia, from the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory west to Broome and south to Warburton in Western Australia; probably not extant in Murray-Darling basin, S Gulfs, SW coastal.
IBRA
NSW, NT, Qld, SA, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Burt Plain (BRT), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Pilbara (PIL), Riverina (RIV), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Warren (WAR), Yalgoo (YAL)
Ecological Descriptors
Fossorial, frugivorous, granivore, hummock grassland, low open shrubland, low open woodland, low shrubland, low woodland, nocturnal, open scrub, predator, root feeder, tall shrubland, terrestrial, tussock grassland, woodland.
Extra Ecological Information
In Great Sandy Desert records suggest association with alluvial surfaces rather than sandplains and dunes, insectivore.
General References
Agar, N.S. & Godwin, I.R. 1991. Red cell metabolism in brown antechinus, the bilby and the rufous hare-wallaby. Australian Journal of Zoology 39: 681-687
Aitken, P. 1979. The status of endangered Australian wombats, bandicoots and the marsupial mole. pp. 61-65 in Tyler, M.J. (ed.). The Status of Endangered Australasian Wildlife. Adelaide : Royal Zoological Society of South Australia.
Anon. 1983. Conservation of the Dalgyte. SWANS 13(1): 15-17
Archer, M. & Kirsch, J.A.W. 1977. The case for the Thylacomyidae and Myrmecobiidae, Gill, 1872, or why are marsupial families so extended. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 102: 18-25
Claridge, A.W. & May, T.W. 1994. Mycophagy among Australian mammals. Australian Journal of Ecology 19: 251-275
Covacevich, J.A. & Couper, P.J. 1996. Aspidites ramsayi (Boidae) in the Brigalow Biogeographic Region of Queensland: Occurrence, conservation status and possible bilby associations. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 39: 243-246
Dickman, C.R. 1994. Native mammals of western New South Wales: Past neglect, future rehabilitation? pp. 81-91 in Lunney, D., Hand, S.Reed, P. & Butcher, D. (eds). Future of the fauna of western New South Wales. Mosman : Royal Zoological Society of NSW 245 pp.
Gibson, L.A. 2001. Seasonal changes in the diet, food availability and food preference of the greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) in south-western Queensland. Wildlife Research 28: 121-134
Hulbert, A.J. 1973. Growth and development of pouch young in the Rabbit-eared Bandicoot, Macrotis lagotis (Peramelidae). Australian Mammalogy 1: 38-39
Hulbert, A.J. 1974. A comparative study of the environmental physiology of peramelid marsupials. Australian Mammalogy 1: 299
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
Jackson, S. & Groves, C. 2015. Taxonomy of Australian Mammals. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 520 pp. [90-91]
Johnson, C.N. & Johnson, K.A. 1983. Behaviour of the Bilby, Macrotis lagotis (Reid), (Marsupialia: Thylacomyidae) in captivity. Australian Wildlife Research 10: 77-87
Johnson, K.A. 1989. Thylacomyidae. pp. 625-635 in Walton, D.W. & Richardson, B.J. (eds). Fauna of Australia. Mammalia. Canberra : Australian Government Publishing Service Vol. 1B 827 pp.
Johnson, K.A. 1995. Bilby Macrotis lagotis. pp. 186-188 in Strahan, R. (ed.). The Mammals of Australia: The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife. Sydney : Reed New Holland 756 pp.
Kirsch, J.A.W. 1977. The comparative serology of Marsupialia, and a classification of marsupials. Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series 52: 1-152
Lavery, H.J. & Kirkpatrick, T.H. 1997. Field management of the bilby Macrotis lagotis in an area of south-western Queensland. Biological Conservation 1997: 271-281
McCracken, H.E. 1986. Observations on the oestrous cycle and gestation period of the Greater Bilby, Macrotis lagotis (Reid) (Marsupialia: Thylacomyidae). Australian Mammalogy 9: 5-16
McCracken, H.E. 1990. Reproduction in the greater bilby, Macrotis lagotis (Reid) - a comparison with other perameloids. pp. 199-204 in Seebeck, J.H., Brown, P.R., Wallis, R.L. & Kemper, C.M. (eds). Bandicoots and Bilbies. Chipping Norton : Surrey Beatty & Sons 392 pp.
Miller, E.J., Eldridge, M.D.B., Thomas, N., Marlow, N. & Herbert, C.A. 2010. The genetic mating system, male reproductive success and lack of selection on male traits in the greater bilby. Australian Journal of Zoology 58(2): 113-120
Moritz, C., Heideman, A., Geffen, E. & McRae, P. 1997. Genetic population structure of the greater bilby Macrotis lagotis, a marsupial in decline. Molecular Ecology 6: 925-936
Southgate, R., McRae, P. & Atherton, R. 1995. Trapping techniques and pen design for the greater bilby Macrotis lagotis. Australian Mammalogy 18: 101-104
Southgate, R. & Adams, M. 1993. Genetic variation in the greater bilby. Pacific Conservation Biology 1: 46-51
Southgate, R. & Possingham, H. 1995. Modeling the reintroduction of the greater bilby Macrotis lagotis using the metapopulation model analysis of the likelihood of extinction (ALEX). Biological Conservation 73: 151-160
Southgate, R.I. 1990. Distribution and abundance of the greater bilby Macrotis lagotis Reid (Marsupialia: Peramelidae). pp. 293-302 in Seebeck, J.H., Brown, P.R., Wallis, R.L. & Kemper, C.M. (eds). Bandicoots and Bilbies. Chipping Norton : Surrey Beatty & Sons 392 pp.
Southgate, R.I. 1990. Habitats and diet of the greater bilby Macrotis lagotis Reid (Marsupialia: Peramelidae). In, Seebeck, J.H., Brown, P.R., Wallis, R.L. & Kemper, C.M. (eds). Bandicoots and Bilbies. Chipping Norton : Surrey Beatty & Sons 392 pp.
Common Name References
ABRS 2001. Census of Australian Vertebrates. Australian Biological Resources Study. (Bilby)
History of changes
| Published | As part of group | Action Date | Action Type | Compiler(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04-Feb-2023 | THYLACOMYIDAE | 22-Nov-2022 | MODIFIED | |
| 05-Nov-2010 | 16-Oct-2013 | MODIFIED | ||
| 12-Feb-2010 | (import) |