Malacothrix Wagner, 1843 . In Schreber, Die Säugethiere, Suppl., 3:496.

TYPE SPECIES: Otomys typicus A. Smith, 1834 .

SYNONYMS: Otomys (Smith, 1834, not Cuvier, 1823).

COMMENTS: Generally considered monotypic (Meester et al., 1986), but this view needs testing by systematic revision. See Matthey (1967) for reference to chromosomal information and karyological contrasts with other dendromurine genera.