Stochomys Thomas, 1926

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 : 665

Stochomys Thomas, 1926 . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 17:176.

TYPE SPECIES: Dasymys longicaudatus Tullberg, 1893 .

COMMENTS: Listed as a genus by Allen (1939), but allocated to Rattus as a subgenus by Ellerman (1941). D. H. S. Davis (1965) placed Stochomys in Aethomys as a subgenus, which reflected Thomas's (1915) early allocation of longicaudatus to subgenus Aethomys . Misonne (1969) and Rosevear (1969), however, reinstated the generic position of Stochomys, correctly noting that it was distinctive and not closely related to Rattus. It has been phylogenetically associated with Dephomys (D. H. S. Davis, 1965; Misonne, 1969), but is unrelated to that genus, as reflected by morphometric analyses ( Van der Straeten, 1984), and analyses of qualitative traits. Features of pelage, skull, and dentition characterizing Stochomys are most similar to those found in species of Aethomys, and suggest the two to be members of the same monophyletic clade in which Stochomys is the high forest partner of Savanna Aethomys.