phalanger Zool.
(fəˈlændʒə(r))
[a. mod.L. (Buffon), also mod.F., f. Gr. ϕαλάγγιον ‘spider's web’, in reference to the webbed toes of the hind feet.]
A quadruped of the genus Phalangista, or of the subfamily Phalangistinæ, Australian marsupials of arboreal habits, containing numerous genera and species, usually of small size, with thick woolly fur; the typical genera (Australian ‘opossums’) have prehensile tails; the flying phalangers (called also flying opossums, flying-squirrels, or petaurists) have non-prehensile tails and a flying-membrane or parachute.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. vii. i. 515 The Phalanger, so-called by Mr. Buffon,..about the size of a rat, and has..been called the Rat of Surinam. 1780 Smellie tr. Buffon's Nat. Hist. (1785) VII. 175 We have called it the phalanger, because its phalanges are very singularly constructed. 1876 Forest & Stream 13 July 375/2 The native bear, the vulpine phalanger, the wombat. 1885 M. R. O. Thomas in Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 727/2 Buffon gave to a pair of cuscuses examined by him the name..‘Phalanger’, on account of the peculiar structure of the second and third toes of the hind feet, which are united in a common skin up to the nails. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right xxvii. 249 The rustle of the phalangers and the smaller marsupials. |