Unicomys ponceleti Troughton, 1935c

Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy & Divljan, Anja, 2017, Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (5), pp. 277-420 : 379

Unicomys ponceleti Troughton, 1935c

Rec. Aust. Mus. 19(4): 260, plate xix. (19 September 1935).

Common name. Poncelet’s Giant Rat.

Current name. Solomys ponceleti ( Troughton, 1935c) , following Musser & Carleton (2005).

Holotype. M.5756 by original designation. Female adult, [ Field no. 347], skull, skin in alc., locality in register is “Buin, S. Bougainville Id.”, collected and donated by Father J. B. Poncelet in 1934, registered December 1934. Month of collection not indicated.

Condition. Cranium and dentaries complete. Whole skin in alc.

Type locality. “About 10 miles inland from Buin, south Bougainville Island” ( Troughton, 1935c), North Solomons Province, Papua New Guinea.

Paratypes. (2, by original designation). S.1940, skull; S.1941, cranium only; both specimens are unsexed skulls, both registered December 1934, same data as holotype. S Register entries for both specimens state “skin nil” .

Comments. Troughton indicates a type series of three specimens. Two further specimens from Poncelet were registered in September 1937: M.6341, female, skull, study skin from “Koniguari, 18 miles inland from Buin”, and M.6342, female, skull, skin in alc., from “Monoukeu”. A photograph of the holotype as a whole body (i.e. prior to skinning) was given in the original description; it is not known whether the skinned body in alcohol was retained in the Collection.