Oxymycterus quaestor Thomas 1903

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 955-1189 : 1159

Oxymycterus quaestor Thomas 1903

Oxymycterus quaestor Thomas 1903 , Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 11: 226.

Type Locality: Brazil, Paraná State, Serra do Mar, Roça Nova.

Vernacular Names: Quaestor Hocicudo.

Synonyms: Oxymycterus judex Thomas 1909 ; Oxymycterus misionalis Sanborn 1931 .

Distribution: NE Argentina (Misiones), SE Brazil (N Rio Grande do Sul to Rio de Janeiro), and perhaps extreme E Paraguay.

Discussion: Oxymycterus quaestor , judex , and misionalis were all described as species, but Cabrera (1961) and Reig (1987) considered them to be subspecific synonyms of O. hispidus , as subsequently observed ( Corbet and Hill, 1991; Musser and Carleton, 1993). Recent checklists have referenced some or all as species, without explanation (e.g., Fonseca et al., 1996; Galliari et al., 1996; Heinonen Fortabat and Chebez, 1997). Hoffmann et al. (2002) too acknowledged the three as species; however, their analytical samples are substantially congruent in morphometric space ( CVA based on 29 craniodental measurements), a posteriori misclassification among the three is relatively high, and molecular samples of two ( judex and quaestor ) form a clade that appears comparable to intraspecific sequence divergence levels presented for other species (e.g., O. dasytrichus , O. delator , and O. rufus ). We provisionally retain the three as one species, pending unambiguous argument for their specific status.