Cremnomys blanfordi (Thomas, 1881)

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 587

Cremnomys blanfordi (Thomas, 1881) . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, 7:24.

TYPE LOCALITY: India, Madras, Kadapa .

DISTRIBUTION: Endemic to Sri Lanka and Peninsular India, from S provinces north to Behar and C Provinces.

COMMENTS: Once allocated to Rattus ( Ellerman, 1941, 1961), blanfordi is phylogenetically distant from any species in that genus and is related to species in Cremnomys , a conclusion based on dental morphology ( Misonne, 1969) and chromosomal evidence ( Gadi and Sharma, 1983; Raman and Sharma, 1977; Rao and Lakhotia, 1972). Chromosomal number and configuration of C. blanfordi are very similar to that recorded for C. cutchicus and C. elvira ( Raman and Sharma, 1977) , but differ in amount of C-band-positive constitutive heterochromatin ( Sharma and Gadi, 1977). Sody (1941) proposed Madromys , a nomen nudum , for this species.