328.

Ugi Island Giant Rat

Solomys salamonis

French: Solomys d’'Ugi / German: Ugi-Insel-Nacktschwanzratte / Spanish: Rata gigante de Ugi

Other common names: Florida Island Giant Rat, Florida Island Solomys, Ugi Giant Rat, Ugi Island Solomys, Nggele Giant Rat

Taxonomy. Mus salamonis Ramsay, 1883,

“Island of ‘Ugi,” Solomon Group [= Islands].”

Solomys salamonis has in the past sometimes been placed incorrectly in genus Uromys . Type locality of salamonis has been confused over time: originally described from Ugi Island, holotype was reported by T. F. Flannery and S. Wickler in 1990 to have come from Florida Island (= Nggela Islands); in 2014 T. H. Lavery indicated that

the type is indeed from Ugi, and further survey on this island is needed. Currently, there is no record of S. salamonis from Florida Island. The Solomons have eight species of tree rat ( Solomys, Uromys, Melomys), each restricted to a few islands; some islands hold more than one species. Makira and New Georgia hold a native rat known to local people but not yet scientifically described, and biologists are unsure if such species are found on other islands; there may be new speciesstill to be recorded. Monotypic.

Distribution. Known only from holotype from Ugi I, Solomon Is.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 216 mm, tail 224 mm, ear 13mm, hindfoot 44 mm. No specific data are available for body weight. The only available measurements are from the holotype, an adult male originally preserved in alcohol with skull extracted, but the body has been lost and only the skull now represents the species. The Ugi Island Giant Rat is the smallest of all Solomys species. It differs from the Isabel Island Giant Rat ( S. sapientis) and the Bougainville Island Giant Rat ( S. salebrosus) in its smaller size and in having the back gray, instead of reddish brown; there are also some cranial features which set this species apart. According to E. P. Ramsay in 1883,it is a pale, grizzled “light ashy gray”, rather rough-looking rat with palate and bullae configuration as in other Solomys . General fur color is light ashy gray, somewhat grizzly, and penciled with black; base of hairs is mouse-colored, tips almost white. Tail is bare and scaly. Whiskers are blackish and long. Ears are small, gray inside, covered with minute hairs on outside.

Habitat. Presumably primary forest.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. No information.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List. Ug 1s a relatively small Island (44 km?®), and logging is the most obvious threat to its wildlife. Surveys of Ugi are needed, as well as thorough surveys of neighboring islands, to ascertain whether the species is still extant. There are no confirmed recent records of the Ugi Island Giant Rat, either from Ugi Island or from Florida Island. Lavery, in 2012, conducted a field survey on Ugi to locate and observe this species, but without success. Fieldwork on Florida Island in 1987 and 1991 hadfailed to record this murid.

Bibliography. Flannery (1995a), Flannery & Wickler (1990), Helgen, Leary & Wright (2016d), Lavery (2014), Lavery et al. (2016), Musser & Carleton (2005), Tate (1951), Ramsay (1883), Troughton (1936b).