Images attached to GBIF records (field photographs, museum & herbarium specimens), from . Open licences; click for the record.
Delicate Pseudomys
Pseudomys delicatulus (Gould, 1842)
Also calledKleine Australienmaus (deu) · Pseudomys délicat (fra) · myška půvabná (ces) · pikkuhiiruli (fin) · pseudomysz delikatna (pol) · Малая ложная мышь (rus) · ヒメニセマウス (jpn)
First described in: Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. vol.1842 p.13
The little native mouse (Pseudomys delicatulus), also known as the delicate mouse, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. The Kunwinjku people of western Arnhem Land call this little creature kijbuk.
It is found in Australia in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales and in Papua New Guinea.
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
discussion
Discussion: Electrophoretic data and spermatozoal morphology supported a close relationship between P. delicatulus, P. novaehollandiae, and P. pilligaensis (Breed, 1983; Briscoe et al., 1981). Sperm head morphology documented by Breed (2000) in context of distinguishing P. delicatulus from P. patrius, and revealing significant geographic variation within the former. Reviewed by Watts and Aslin (1981) and Braithwaite and Covacevich (1995). There is no evidence of range reduction in Australia from the time of European settlement (Braithwaite and Covacevich, 1995). Palmer (2001) described some new collection sites of P. delicatulus in Queensland representing range extensions. Pseudomys delicatulus is one of 17 Australian species of mammals that are also found in the Trans-Fly region of SC New Guinea and nowhere else on the island (Norris and Musser, 2001).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
distribution
Distribution: Torresian distribution in N Australia; N coastal region from near Port Hedland in Western Australia to Bundaberg area in Queensland, including some nearshore islands (Watts and Aslin, 1981: 188; Braithwaite and Covacevich, 1995: 593). SC Papua New Guinea, Morehead region on the trans-Fly plains (Flannery, 1995 a; Waithman, 1979).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
materials_examined
Type Locality: Australia, Northern Territory, Port Essington (as restricted by Thomas’s lectotype designation; see Mahoney and Richardson, 1988: 173).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
discussion
COMMENTS: Electrophoretic data and spermatozoal morphology supported a close relationship between P. delicatulus, P. novaehollandiae, and P. pilligaensis (Breed, 1983; Briscoe et al., 1981).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The little native mouse has fur that is yellow-brown to grey-brown above and white underneath. It is the smallest of all Australian native mice with a head and body length of 55–75 mm (2.2–3.0 in) with adults of both sexes being roughly the same in size, weight (6–15 g (0.21–0.53 oz)) and colour. In Arnhem Land, the only place the species has been studied at length, breeding takes place in July and August. Two to four young are born in a grass-lined nesting chamber after a gestation of 28–31 days. At birth the eyes are shut and the ears tightly folded back, they develop quickly and are independent of the mother around four weeks of age.
Range & habitat
The species is found in sandy, well drained, sparsely covered savanna. The animal lives in hollow logs, under pieces of bark, or in burrows, the design of which varies with local conditions: in hard granite sand ridges the burrow is shallow, intricately constructed retreats with many false passages and one main nesting chamber; in sandy conditions the burrows are deep simple structures around two metres long and with only one main chamber. It occasionally excavates burrows in termite mounds.
Where it has been recorded
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Pseudomys delicatulus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 5219785.