Nesokia indica (Gray & Hardwicke, 1830)

Amr, Zuhair S., Abu, Mohammad A., Qumsiyeh, Mazin & Eid, Ehab, 2018, Systematics, distribution and ecological analysis of rodents in Jordan, Zootaxa 4397 (1), pp. 1-94 : 70

Nesokia indica (Gray & Hardwicke, 1830)

Common name: Short-tailed bandicoot rat.

Diagnosis: Rat-like in appearance. Dorsal fur color brown, ventral lighter with a very weak line of demarcation ( Figure 80 ). Total length ranges from 240–316 mm. Ears small. Tail without hair and markedly shorter than head and body length. Tail color same ventrally and dorsally. Four pairs of mammae. Skull large and robust. Rostrum short. Upper incisors project beyond the anterior end of nasals. Upper molars broad and crowns without cusps in adults ( Figure 81 ). Lower incisor large and powerful.

Localities: Previous records. Ghawr aş Şāfī and Moab ( Aharoni, 1930), Wādī Faynān (Abu Dhayeh, 1988), ( Figure 82 ).

Habitat: Moisture and permanent water bodies are essential for the short-tailed bandicoot rat. Both localities reported in Wādī ‘Araba are in farming areas with plentiful water. The burrows are usually located near irrigation channels and water holes and plugged by shrubs. The burrow consists of a nest chamber 30 cm in length, with tunnels reaching more than 4 meters long and 90 cm in depth. It feeds on fleshy roots of Alhaji and Typha (Osborn & Helmy, 1980) .

Biology: The short-tailed bandicoot rat is thought to reproduce throughout the year, producing a litter containing up to ten young, after a gestation period of around 17 days.

Remarks: The type specimen of this subspecies originated from "Ghor el Safieh" (=Ghawr aş Şāfī). It was also reported from Moab ( Aharoni, 1932). The karyotype for this species from Iran was 2n=42 with 6 autosomes were metacentric 12 submetacentric and 12 acrocentric (Kamali, 1976).

Figures

FIGURE 80. The short-tailed bandicoot rat, Nesokia indica (Photo by Adwan Shehab).

FIGURE 81. A. Dorsal, B. Ventral views of the skull, C. Lower jaw (scale bar = 10 mm), D. Upper maxillary and lower mandibular teeth (scale bar = 2 mm) for Nesokiaindica.

FIGURE82. Distribution of the short-tailedbandicoot rat, Nesokia indica.