Cuscus

 ( Mammal Common Names ) 

Cuscus ( or ) is a common name given to the species belonging to four genus of Phalangeriformes in the family Phalangeridae: Ailurops, Phalanger, Spilocuscus, and Strigocuscus.

The name comes from the word kusu or kuso in some local related languages spoken in the Maluku Islands like Bacan Malay and Ambonese Malay.See:

• Flannery, Tim (1995). Mammals of The South West Pacific and Moluccan Islands. Sydney: Australian Museum.
• van der Zon, A.P.M (1979). Mamalia of Indonesia. UNDP-FAO Park Development Project. It is also applied in parts of Indonesia to the Sunda slow loris, where people do not distinguish this from the "kuskus" Phalangeriformes. The loris, being a primate, is unrelated to the other cuscus species. Cuscus are , even though they have some appearances, traits and attributes like those of of Madagascar, which are , due to convergent evolution.

Cuscuses
	Ailurops Wagler, 1830	Talaud bear cuscus, Ailurops melanotis (Temminck, 1824) Sulawesi bear cuscus, Ailurops ursinus (Oldfield Thomas, 1898)
	Phalanger Storr, 1780	Gebe cuscus, Phalanger alexandrae Tim Flannery and Boeadi, 1995 Mountain cuscus, Phalanger carmelitae Thomas, 1898 Ground cuscus, Phalanger gymnotis (Wilhelm Peters and Giacomo Doria, 1875) Eastern common cuscus, Phalanger intercastellanus Thomas, 1895 Woodlark cuscus, Phalanger lullulae Thomas, 1896 Blue-eyed cuscus, Phalanger matabiru Flannery and Boeadi, 1995 Telefomin cuscus, Phalanger matanim Flannery, 1987 Southern common cuscus, Phalanger mimicus Thomas, 1922 Northern common cuscus, Phalanger orientalis (Pallas, 1766) Ornate cuscus, Phalanger ornatus (Gray, 1860) Rothschild's cuscus, Phalanger rothschildi Thomas, 1898 Silky cuscus, Phalanger sericeus Thomas, 1907 Stein's cuscus, Phalanger vestitus (Milne-Edwards, 1877)
	Spilocuscus Gray, 1862	Admiralty Island cuscus, Spilocuscus kraemeri (Schwartz, 1910) Common spotted cuscus, Spilocuscus maculatus (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1803) Waigeou cuscus, Spilocuscus papuensis (Desmarest, 1822) Black-spotted cuscus, Spilocuscus rufoniger (Zimara, 1937) Blue-eyed spotted cuscus, Spilocuscus wilsoni Helgen & Flannery, 2004
	Strigocuscus Gray, 1862	Sulawesi dwarf cuscus, Strigocuscus celebensis (Gray, 1858) Banggai cuscus, Strigocuscus pelengensis) (Tate, 1945)

Categories: Mammal Common Names, Possums

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