The common echymipera (''Echymipera kalubu''), or common spiny bandicoot, is a

bandicoot Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipela ...

. It is long-snouted even by bandicoot standards. The upper parts are a coarse reddish-brown, flecked with spiny buff and black hairs. The tail is short and almost hairless. Length varies between , with the tail accounting for an additional ; the weight is from .

Names

The name kalubu, from which the scientific name is derived, is from the Ma'ya language of the

Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat (), or the Four Kings, is an archipelago located off of the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula (on the island of New Guinea), Southwest Papua , Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and sh ...

Distribution

The common echymipera is native to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. Its presence in the

Admiralty Islands The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 40 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-cov ...

is due to human introduction several thousand years ago, but not before 13,000 B.P. However, unlike

Phalangeridae The Phalangeridae are a family of mostly nocturnal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Eastern Indonesia, including the cuscuses, brushtail possums, and their close relatives. Considered a type of possum, most species are arboreal, a ...

species (

cuscus Cuscus ( or ) is the common name generally given to the species within the four genera of Australasian possum of the family Phalangeridae with the most tropical distribution: * '' Ailurops'' * '' Phalanger'' * '' Spilocuscus'' * '' Strigocu ...

), which have historically been widely introduced and distributed by humans, the

Peramelidae The marsupial family Peramelidae contains the extant bandicoots. They are found throughout Australia and New Guinea, with at least some species living in every available habitat, from rainforest to desert. Four fossil peramelids are described. O ...

(

s) have generally not been spread as much via human introductions. It is hunted for human consumption in New Guinea.Margaretha Pangau-Adam & Richard Noske & Michael Muehlenberg. Wildmeat or Bushmeat? Subsistence Hunting and Commercial Harvesting in Papua (West New Guinea), Indonesia. ''Hum Ecol'' (2012) 40:611–621. The Common echymipera is a host of the

Acanthocephala Acanthocephala ( Greek , ' 'thorn' + , ' 'head') is a group of parasitic worms known as acanthocephalans, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an eversible proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses t ...

n intestinal parasite ''

Australiformis semoni ''Australiformis'' is a monotypic genus of acanthocephalans (thorny-headed or spiny-headed parasitic worms) containing a single species, ''Australiformis semoni'', that infests marsupials in Australia and New Guinea. Its body consists of a probo ...

''.

References

Peramelemorphs Marsupials of New Guinea Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals of Western New Guinea Least concern biota of Oceania Mammals described in 1829 Taxa named by Johann Baptist Fischer {{marsupial-stub