Melomys levipes (Thomas, 1897)

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 : 617

Melomys levipes (Thomas, 1897) . Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, 18:617.

TYPE LOCALITY: New Guinea, Papua, Central Prov., Sogeri Plateau, Haveri, 700 m (additional information provided by Laurie and Hill, 1954:121, and Menzies, 1989) .

DISTRIBUTION: Papua New Guinea, S Central Prov.; Sogeri Plateau and Atrolabe Range near Port Moresby, below about 700 m; limits unknown.

COMMENTS: A lectotype was designated by Menzies (1989), but Rümmler (1938) had already indicated which of Thomas' two cotypes should be considered the holotype. Our examination of series indicated that true levipes is documented by the holotype and Tate's (1951:291) series from Baruari and Itiki in the Astrolabe Range (other material Tate lists as M. levipes is either M. platyops or M. mollis ). All the other records usually associated with M. levipes ( Laurie and Hill, 1954; Tate, 1951) represent M. lanosus , M. lorentzii , M. mollis , and M. rattoides . In morphology and altitudinal distribution, M. levipes is very similar to M. lorentzii and may represent the SE Papuan form of that species, an alliance also discerned by Thomas (1913b). A specimen from New Britain in the American Museum of Natural History (194397) is cranially and dentally similar to M. levipes .