In D. trivirgata and D. megalura there is a black chin spot. The bushy tail is well haired except at the undersurface of the tip and is mostly dark-colored except that the tip is usually whitish. Females have two mammae and a well-developed pouch. This genus is characterized by large first incisor teeth and a slender, elongated fourth digit with a hooked nail on the forefoot. The claw of the fourth front digit of Dactylonax is much smaller than those of the other digits.
Striped possums live in rainforest or sclerophyll forest.
They are nocturnal and arboreal, being superb climbers that seldom if ever descend to the ground. They shelter by day in dry leaf nests in hollows, curled into a ball, but lying flat down and not rolled up in a sitting position like most possums. A captive striped possum cleaned itself elaborately upon emerging at night and then began to hunt for food with long-legged striding movements, so that it seemed to flow rather than jump from branch to branch. Striped possums sniff loudly around likely food sources, use their incisors to tear wood and gnaw out wood-boring grubs, and use their long finger to hook grubs from deep and narrow holes. They also tap their forefeet rapidly on loose bark, presumably to disturb insects beneath it.