Taxonomy and historical distribution of the wallaby genus Lagostrophus

Abstract

The banded hare-wallaby (Lagostrophus fasciatus) is an endangered macropodid currently restricted to Bernier and Dorre Islands in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Historically, L. fasciatus was also recorded on the Australian mainland from far western Australia, where it became locally extinct early in the twentieth century. Here we discuss an overlooked museum specimen of L. fasciatus collected in the mid-nineteenth century near Adelaide, South Australia. This specimen considerably extends the known historical distribution of L. fasciatus, validates anecdotal reports of the species from South Australia made by early Australian naturalists, and forms the basis for our description of a new subspecies.