Melomys bougainville Troughton 1936

Melomys bougainville Troughton 1936, Rec. Aust. Mus ., 19: 344.

Type Locality: Solomon Isls, Bougainville Isl, Buin.

Vernacular Names: Bougainville Island Melomys.

Distribution: Recorded only from islands of Buka, Bougainville, and Choiseul in northern Solomon Arch. (Flannery and Wickler, 1990; Flannery, 1995 b).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Although historically treated as a subspecies of M. rufescens, M. bougainville is a separate species known by small samples of extant and archaeological specimens (Flannery and Wickler, 1990). Most closely related to M. rufescens, M. matambuai, and M. paveli (Helgen, 2003 b; Menzies, 1996).