Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) Fact Sheet: Taxonomy & History

Taxonomy

• Petaurus breviceps may be composed of more than one species (Jackson 2015a; Salas et al. 2016)
  • Several New Guinea populations show distinctive features (Nowak 2018a)
• Genetically distinct populations
  • D'Entrecasteaux Island of New Guinea (Malekian et al. 2010)
    • May be a distinct species (Salas et al. 2016)

Nomenclature

• Genus: Petaurus
  • Means “rope dancer” (Lindenmayer 2002)
• Species: P. breviceps
  • Means “short headed” (Flannery 1995)

Synonyms

• No recent synonyms (Suckling 2008)
• Older synonyms (Smith 1973; Flannery 1995)
  • Petaurus (Belideus) ariel
  • Petaurus (Belideus) kohlsi
  • Petaurus (Belideus) notatus
  • Petaurus breviceps papuanus
    • Later elevated to species level (see below)
  • Petaurus (Petaurella) papuanus tafa
  • Petaurus (Petaurella) papuanus flavidus

Common names

• Lesser flying phalanger, lesser flying squirrel, lesser glider, short-headed flying phalanger, sugar squirrel, Tasmanian sugar glider (Tasmania) (English) (Jackson 2015a)
  • “Sugar glider” or “sugar squirrel”
    • Named for feeding preference for sweet foods (Fleay 1947; Henry and Suckling 1984)
• Possum à sucre (French) (Jackson 2015a)
• Kurzkopf-Gleithörnchenbeutler (German) (Jackson 2015a)
• Falangero planeador del azúcar (Spanish) (Jackson 2015a)

Other colloquial or local names

• Indigenous names used on Tiwi Islands (near Darwin, northern Australia) (Suckling 2008)
  • Rigingini (males)
  • Riginga (females)
• Indigenous names in New Guinea (Flannery 1995)
  • Dononi
  • Mayfagam
  • Silek
  • Webrim
  • Panuk naway
  • Unundawe

Fossil history and evolutionary relationships

• Limited fossil record for lesser gliders (Jackson 2015b)
• Oldest specimens of Petauridae from the Oligocene, about 20 to 30 mya (Jackson 2015b)
  • Unknown if able to glide
    • First gliding possums and gliders may have emerged during the Pliocene, about 5 mya
• Genus Petaurus emerged late Oligocene to early Miocene, about 18 to 24 mya (Malekian et al. 2010)

Closest living (extant) relatives

• Biak glider (Petaurus biacensis) (Lindenmayer 2002)
• Not closely related to other “gliding mammals”; similar adaptations for locomotion result from convergent evolution (Jackson 2015b)
  • Feather-tailed gliders (Order Diprotondontia, Family Acrobatidae)
  • Greater glider (Order Diprotondontia, Family Pseudocheiridae)
  • Flying squirrel (Order Rodentia, Family Sciuridae)
  • Anomalures (Order Rodentia, Family Anomaluridae)
  • Colugos (Order Dermoptera, Family Cynocephalidae)

History

• 1803
  • First recorded observations of a sugar glider by Europeans (Jackson 2012)
    • Other lesser gliders described in the 1780s
• 1835
  • Sugar gliders introduced to Tasmania (Gunn 1851; Lindenmayer 2002; Campbell et al. 2018)
    • Followed European settlement of Port Phillip in southern Victoria

Culture and folklore

• Significance in Australian Aboriginal and New Guinea cultures
  • Food source (Tindale [1925] as cited by Smith [1973])
  • Fur used to decorate armlets and make string (Tindale [1925] as cited by Smith [1973])
  • Regarded with suspicion in some regions of New Guinea (Flannery 1995)
    • Associated with sorcery and secrecy
  • Also see Kerle (2001), Chapter 2; Lindenmayer (2002), p. 100
    • General discussion of gliders/possums, Aboriginal life and culture, and role in European settlement
• Early colonial Australia
  • Commonly kept as pets (Lindenmayer 2002)

Books

• Selected non-fiction
  • Gliding Mammals of the World by Stephen Jackson (2012)
  • Gliders of Australia by David Lindenmayer (2002)
  • Gliders of the Gum Trees: The Most Beautiful and Enchanting Australian Marsupials by David Fleay (1947)

Poetry

• A. B. Paterson, “Flying Squirrels,” The Animals Noah Forgot (1933)

Art

• Paintings
  • Belideus ariel by John Gould (1863) (Gould and Dixon 1975)
  • Belideus breviceps by John Gould (1863) (Gould and Dixon 1975)
  • Belideus notatus by John Gould (1863) (Gould and Dixon 1975)
  • Lesser Flying Phalanger by Richard Lydekker (1896) (Lydekker 1896)
  • Sugar Glider by Neville W. Cayley (1941) (Troughton 1966)
  • Various illustrations by David Fleay and M. Glover Fleay in Gliders of the Gum Trees (1947)
  • Sugar Glider by Peter Schouten (2012) (Jackson 2012)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia (Linnaeus, 1758) — mammals

Order: Diprotodontia (Owen, 1877) — koala, wombats, possums and gliders, kangaroos, wallabies

Family: Petauridae (Bonaparte, 1832 sensu Baverstock, 1984) — lesser gliders, striped possum, Leadbeater’s possum

Genus: Petaurus (Shaw, 1791) — lesser gliders

Species: Petaurus breviceps* (Waterhouse, 1838) — sugar glider

Subspecies:
P. b. breviceps (Waterhouse, 1838)
P. b. ariel (Gould, 1842)
P. b. longicaudatus
P. b. papuanus (Thomas, 1888)

Source: Jackson and Groves (2015)

*Taxonomic note: Some authors suggest that this species may be several species (e.g., Jackson 2015a; Salas et al. 2016). Additional research is needed.

An 1863 illustration by John Gould of two sugar gliders.

Gould depicts a sugar glider nesting in a eucalyptus tree hollow. The white tail tip of the other glider is common in populations in southern Victoria.

"Belideus notatus Stripe-tailed Belideus"; Plate 26 in John Gould's The Mammals of Australia (1863).

Image credit: Made available by Biodiversity Heritage Library (contributed to BHL by Smithsonian Libraries). Public domain.