Holochilus sciureus Wagner, 1842

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 705

Holochilus sciureus Wagner, 1842 . Arch. Naturgesch., ser. 8, 1:16.

TYPE LOCALITY: Brazil, Minas Gerais, Rio Sâo Francisco .

DISTRIBUTION: Broad reaches of Orinoco and Amazon river basins: E and S Venezuela, Guianas, N and C Brazil, and Amazonian regions of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

SYNONYMS: amazonicus , berbericensis, guianae , incarum, nanus , venezuelae .

COMMENTS: Discrimination from H. brasiliensis documented by Massoia (1980 a, 1981), who raised sciureus to specific rank. Many forms swept under Hershkovitz's (1955a) concept of brasiliensis actually belong to this "species," which itself may be a composite. Reig (1986), for instance, listed amazonicus , guianae , and venezuelae as probable valid species, a taxonomy which should be given empirical testing (also see Aguilera and Perez-Zapata, 1989).