Antechinus brevicaudatus Krefft, 1872b incertae sedis

The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (new series) vol. XIV, nu. 644, p. 554, col. 1. (2 November 1872) .

Common name. The “Short-tailed Antechinus ” of Krefft.

Current name. Indeterminate, presumably Antechinus, perhaps Sminthopsis .

Holotype. Krefft’s original specimen is probably PA.661, sex not determined, skin mount. The only data in the Palmer Register are the original entry by Palmer: “ Antechinus brevicaudatus, King’s Island Bass Strait, Mounted”. The collector, donor and date are not given but Krefft (1868c) mentions that he had “recently” received a new Antechinus from the Bass Strait Islands . PA.661 was not located in the AM Collection in 2014 nor was it sighted in inventories of the past few decades.

Type locality. Probably King Island, Bass Strait (Krefft, 1872b).

Comments. We have not located this name in the literature but it could be regarded as a valid description. Krefft’s verbatim account is:

“Smallest of the tribe—supposing that my specimen, which is still unique, is adult. The skull is not in a condition to be examined. General colour dark, sepia brown, almost black, tail about an inch in length; fur very coarse. Found on some of the islands of Bass’s Straits, I believe King’s Island.”

The identity of this taxon cannot be determined until material assigned by Krefft is located, but it is doubtful if such material, possibly a single specimen, has survived. However, a specimen index card, written in old writing likely in the first decade of the 20th century, states: “ Antechinus brevicaudata [sic] skull, no data”. Possible contenders for the identity of this entity, other than it being a valid but unrecognized taxon, include A. swainsonii (Waterhouse, 1840) or A. minimus (É. Geoffroy, 1803b) and possibly Sminthopsis leucopus (J. Gray, 1842) . Krefft (1872b) based his concepts of Antechinus taxa on Gould (1863b), and recognized A. swainsonii and A. affinus (Gray, 1841) (= A. minimus (É. Geoffroy, 1803b)), both of which Krefft listed as being from Tasmania.