Mus musavora Ramsay, 1877g

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 : 365

Mus musavora Ramsay, 1877g

Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (ser. 1) 2(1): 16. (July 1877).

Common name. Black-tailed Mosaic-tailed rat.

Current name. Melomys rufescens rufescens ( Alston, 1877) , following Menzies (1996) and Musser & Carleton (2005).

Syntypes. (3, by subsequent determination). M.2368 , male, (skin tag 49), skull, study skin. A tag attached to the skin and initialed by Ramsay states: “No. 49 Type of the species ♂. Mus musavora Duke of York Islands Bought of Cockerell E.P.R.” M Register entry states “ Mus musavora , male, Duke of York Island, TYPE, collected by Rev. George Brown, purchased from Cockerell”, registered on 16 December 1913 from the “old collection 1876”. Collection date not given, assumed to be about 1876 by Troughton (1936a) . Lectotype and paralectotype possibly designated by Troughton (1936a); see below. M.2367 , female, (skin tag 54), study skin with skull in situ. Early tag attached to skin, likely to be in Ramsay’s hand states: “Type of the species ♀ Mus musavora Duke of York Islands Rev. G. Brown ” same details as M.2368 and also entered as “TYPE”. M.2348 , (skin tag 53), skull, study skin, young, indeterminate sex, M Register entry states “ Mus musavora , young, Duke of York Island , 1876, Old Coll., Rev. George Brown”, registered 16 December 1913 .

Condition. M.2368: cranium missing occipital area, both auditory capsules; both dentaries missing angular processes. Incomplete study skin: tail is detached, lower lip missing, bald patch in front of right ear on the dorsal surface, faded. M.2367: study skin, left front limb almost detached, tail bent at the base, right ear almost detached. M.2348: incomplete cranium, missing right side of occipital area, and anterior tips of both nasals, soft palate retained on cranium. Study skin complete.

Cranial measurements (mm). M.2368: GL, —; NasL, 13.51; NasB, 4.54; DIL, 10.16; APV, 4.77; PAL, 18.99; UMR (alv.), 6.82; ZB, 18.79; POC, 6.36; BUL, —; MB, —; DL (condyl.), 21.27; LMR (alv.), 6.35.

Type locality. “Duke of York Island” (Ramsay), East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea.

Comments. Ramsay does not indicate the number of specimens he examined but his account of external and cranial characters suggests that he examined more than one. Troughton (1936a: 345) made a passing reference to “ the lectotype male and allotype female of Mus musavora Ramsay = Melomys rufescens Alston , from Duke of York Island, Nos. M.2367–68, collected by the Rev. George Brown about 1876”. However, on the same page, he refers to the “ holotype skull” of musavora . In his unpublished list of AM mammal types he listed M.2367 as a lectotype ( Troughton, 1956). We are not aware of any formal lectotype designation, before or since, and leave open the question of whether Troughton’s mention constitutes lectotype fixation. Menzies (1996) examined M.2367–68 and listed both under a heading “ Holotypes ” (= syntypes). A further specimen (M.2348) could be from Ramsay’s original series. This specimen was not mentioned by Troughton (1936a; 1956), perhaps because it is immature. However, Ramsay mentions that he examined both adults and young. It was entered in the M Register in December 1913 as “ Mus musavora 1876 , Old Collection, Rev George Brown” “skin and skull”, but without subsequent amendment that it is a type, unlike the M Register entries for M.2367–68. Printed paper tags attached to the skins of the three specimens are likely to be Palmer Register numbers (49, 53 and 54), and if so, are inconsistent with the data originally entered apparently in error by Palmer in the register; see previous account for Mus (?) echimyoides Ramsay.