Rattus villosissimus Waite 1898

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1189-1531 : 1494

Rattus villosissimus Waite 1898

Rattus villosissimus Waite 1898 , Proc. R. Soc. Victoria, 10: 125.

Type Locality: Australia, Queensland, "from probably the vicinity of Goonhaghooheeny Billabong, Cooper Creek" ( Mahoney and Richardson, 1988:188).

Vernacular Names: Australian Long-haired Rat.

Synonyms: Rattus longipilis (Gould 1854) ; Rattus profusus Thomas 1921 .

Distribution: Australia; broad inland range from NW Western Australia through Northern Territory into most of Queensland and N South Australia and N New South Wales (see Watts and Aslin, 1981:245); fossils indicate a past broader range once extended across the Nullarbor Plain to the Great Australian Bight ( Watts and Aslin, 1981; Watts, 1995 k). Range in South Australia summarized by Robinson et al. (2000).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Rattus fuscipes species group. Geographic range is allopatric to the coastal R. sordidus in Queensland and R. colletti in Northern Territory (see Taylor and Horner, 1973:72). The three species are closely related; villosissimus was treated as a subspecies of R. sordidus by Taylor and Horner (1973), but is considered genically closer to colletti by Baverstock et al. (1983 a, 1986); see accounts of R. sordidus and R. colletti . An undescribed species related to R. villosissimus and R. colletti is known from a small area in C Queensland (Aplin, in litt., 2004). Analyses of electrophoretic data by Gemmeke and Niethammer (1984) indicated R. villosissimus to be greatly separated from R. argentiventer , R. exulans , R. norvegicus , and R. tiomanicus , and closer to species of Bandicota and Maxomys . Reviewed by Mahoney and Richardson (1988), Watts and Aslin (1981), and Watts (1995 k). Occurrence of R. villosissimus in Mootwingee National Park of W New South Wales documented by Ellis (1995 a) based on skulls and mummified remains. Effects of inbreeding on skeletal development reported by Lacy and Horner (1996).