Maxomys Sody, 1936

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 : 611

Maxomys Sody, 1936 . Natuurk. Tidjschr. Ned.-Ind., 96:55.

TYPE SPECIES: Mus bartelsii Jentink, 1910 .

COMMENTS: Definition and contents of Maxomys provided by Musser et al. (1979), who discussed historical allocations of species to groups of Rattus , and summarized chromosomal information. The exclusion of Maxomys from Rattus was also supported by biochemical data ( Chan et al., 1979). Morphological analyses indicated that Maxomys shares all its derived molar traits with Berylmys, Mus, and Niviventer, and some of its external features with Mus ( Musser and Newcomb, 1983). Hypothetical phylogenetic estimate of relationships based on karyotypic data placed Maxomys close to Niviventer and Lenothrix and far from Rattus ( Gadi and Sharma, 1983). Spermatozoal morphology of Malayan Maxomys and one Sulawesian species was similar to Chiropodomys and Hapalomys, a configuration also like that seen in Mus and Apodemus ( Breed and Musser, 1991; Breed and Yong, 1986). Sperm conformation in the other species of Sulawesian Maxomys were unlike the Malayan species and resembled that of the Sulawesian endemic Margaretamys ( Breed and Musser, 1991).