DIDELPHIDAE: DIDELPHINAE (Opossums)

The Didelphidae is a large (some seventeen genera and eighty-seven species) family of marsupial
mammals, the only living representatives of the Order Didelphimorphia. Various subfamily groupings
(e.g., Marmosinae, Glironiinae, Didelphinae, and Caluromyinae) have been recognized and often given
their own family status; here, following Gardner (in Wilson and Reeder 2005) only the subfamily
divisions Didelphinae (fourteen genera, eighty-two species) and Caluromyinae are applied,
with each represented by subfamily-level maps, and mapped separately. Members of the subfamily
Didelphinae apparently have reached a number of nearshore islands by natural means (though some
or all of the Lesser Antilles populations may be introductions). Didelphis virginiana has been
widely introduced in western U. S. localities.

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Copyright 2012 Charles H. Smith. All rights reserved.