Vandeleuria nilagirica Jerdon 1867

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 : 1517

Vandeleuria nilagirica Jerdon 1867

Vandeleuria nilagirica Jerdon 1867 , Mammals of India: 203.

Type Locality: SW India, E Tamil Nadu, Nilgiri Hills, Ootacamund.

Vernacular Names: Nilgiri Vandeleuria.

Distribution: Recorded only from S end of the Western Ghats (= Sahyadris) in the Nilgiri Hills of SW Peninsular India ( Corbet and Hill, 1992), but may occur farther north along the Western Ghats wherever tropical evergreen rain forest has not been eliminated.

Discussion: Originally described as a species by Jerdon (1867:203), who wrote of having "on several occasions found this tree-mouse in woods on the summit of the Neelgherries, near Ootacamund." Jerdon was also familiar with oleracea , noting on the previous page that "This very pretty little mouse has been found in all parts of India, from the Himalayas to the extreme south." Subsequently retained as a species by Ellerman (1941), thereafter usually included in V. oleracea ( Agrawal, 2000; Agrawal and Chakraborty, 1980; Ellerman, 1961; Musser and Carleton, 1993), but separated as a separate species by Corbet and Hill (1992) on the basis of the type description (no holotype exists) and a specimen from Kutta, S Coorg in the Nilgiri Hills (much longer tail than any sample of V. oleracea and whitish gray rather than pure white underparts). A typical V. oleracea was also collected at Kutta. See Corbet and Hill (1992) for expanded discussion and comparisons. The murines Mus famulus , Vandeleuria nilagirica and Rattus satarae join the lion-tailed macaque ( Macaca silenus ) in being endemic to tropical rainforests along the Western Ghats.