southern monito del monte

The monito del monte or colocolo opossum, Dromiciops gliroides, also called chumaihuén in Mapudungun, is a diminutive marsupial native only to southwestern South America (Argentina and Chile). It is the only extant species in the ancient order Microbiotheria, and the sole New World representative of the superorder Australidelphia (all other New World marsupials are members of the paraphyletic Ameridelphia). The species is nocturnal and arboreal, and lives in thickets of South American mountain bamboo in the Valdivian temperate forests of the southern Andes, aided by its partially prehensile tail. It eats primarily insects and other small invertebrates, supplemented with fruit. Taxonomy and etymology Dromiciops gliroides is the sole extant member of the order Microbiotheria. It was first described by British zoologist Oldfield Thomas in 1894. The generic name Dromiciops is based on the resemblance of the monito del monte to the eastern pygmy possum (Cercartetus nanus), one of the synonyms of which is Dromicia nana. The specific name gliroides is a combination of the Latin glis, gliris ("dormouse", more generally "rodent") and Greek oides ("similar to"). The name australis in a synonym (D. australis) refers to the southern distribution of the animal. The common name monito del monte is Spanish for "little monkey of the bush". In his 1943 Mammals of Chile, American zoologist Wilfred Hudson Osgood identified two subspecies of the monito del monte: Dromiciops gliroides australis F. Philippi, 1893: It occurs in the Valdivian temperate rain forest in southcentral Chile. Dromiciops gliroides gliroides Thomas, 1894: It occurs in the northeastern Chiloé Island.