310.

Torricelli Mountains Shrew Mouse

Pseudohydromys musseri

French: Souris-musaraigne de Musser / German: Musser-Moosmaus / Spanish: Raton musarana de Torricelli

Other common names: Musser's Shrew Mouse

Taxonomy. Microhydromys musseri Flannery, 1989,

“near summit of Mt Somoro, Torricelli Mountains, West Sepik Province, 1350 m.”

Pseudohydromys musseri, originally described in genus Microhydromys, was transferred to Pseudohydromys in 2009 and referred by K. M. Helgen and L. E. Helgen to an occidentalis species group that also includes P. occidentalis and P. sandrae . Monotypic.

Distribution. Known only from type locality in N New Guinea.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 108 mm, tail 101 mm, ear 13 mm, hindfoot 22 mm. No specific data are available for body weight. Pseudohydromys is a taxonomically diverse group of small-bodied murines characterized by dense, velvety to plush fur; a variably narrowed and flattened head with small eyes and ears; head generally without contrasting pattern; vibrissae fine and elongate, extending past ears; eyes small to minute; narrow hindfeet lacking webbing between digits and with claws on all digits; tail narrow and thinly furred, approximating to combined length of head and body; mammae (when known) two on each side, both inguinal; cranium delicately built, with small molars reduced in numberto two or fewer per quadrant. Members of the occidentalis species group have relatively short tail, two very reduced molars per quadrant, a short rostrum, and other special cranial features. The Torricelli Mountains Shrew Mouse is a medium-sized member of genus and one of the few that are brightly colored;fur is short and velvety, warm brown onupperparts and with a sharp change to cinnamon below and on chin and throat; head broader than that of congeners; vibrissae fine and elongate, extending well past ears; eyes small, surrounded by circle of fine black hairs; ears small and dark gray; upper surfaces of feet weakly pigmented and thinly furred with pale hairs; tail short (94% of head-body length), distinctly mottled for entire length. Mammae number not known (holotype is male).

Habitat. The single capture locality is situated in evergreen, lower montane tropical forest growing on steep terrain.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. Little is known, but the unusually bright coloration of the Torricelli Mountains Shrew Mouse raises possibilities of a distinctive ecology.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List. The Torricelli Mountains Shrew Mouse is only known from the type specimen, collected in 1972. There has beenlittle subsequent field survey of high-elevation forests in the Torricelli Mountains.

Bibliography. Flannery (1989, 1995b), Helgen & Helgen (2009), Helgen & Wright (2016), Jackson & Woolley (1993), Musser & Carleton (1993, 2005).