Gonadal Activity in the Marsupial Mouse, Antechinus Bellus, with Notes on Other Species of the Genus (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae)

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Abstract
The fragments of information gathered to date on the genus Ante-chinus in Australia all give supporting evidence that from the tropics to southernmost Australia these small dasyurids are winter breeders. Males as well as females are sexually quiescent except during the breeding season. Within the genus females are equipped with from six (A. bellus, A. swainsonii swainsonii) to 12 (A. flavipes) teats. A. bellus appears to shed more ova than it can later accommodate as young in the pouch area and this is probably the case in other species of Antechinus, for in A. stuartii, at least, wild-caught females, which presumably experience some prenatal loss, usually bear a full complement of young.