A New Species of Thomasomys (Rodentia: Muridae) from Eastern Ecuador, with Remarks on Mammalian Diversity and Biogeography in the Cordillera Oriental
Author
VOSS, ROBERT S.
text
American Museum Novitates
2003
2003-12-09
3421
1
48
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1206/0003-0082%282003%29421%3C0001%3AANSOTR%3E2.0.CO%3B2
journal article
10.1206/0003-0082(2003)421<0001:ANSOTR>2.0.CO;2
f4c2f80e-4917-4b5b-9415-0ee6377973ce
0003-0082
4734917
Microryzomys minutus
(Tomes)
SPECIMENS COLLECTED: 6.2 km (by road) W Papallacta (UMMZ 155678); Río Papallacta valley [
3–5 km
by trail NNW Papallacta],
11,100 ft
(UMMZ 155679, 155801); 1.4 km (by road) E Papallacta (UMMZ 155797); 1.6 km (by road) E Papallacta,
10,250 ft
(AMNH 248278; UMMZ 127126).
OTHER MATERIAL: A single specimen (AMNH 46804) collected by L. Söderström in 1914 is labeled ‘‘Papallacta 11,000 ft’’.
TAXONOMY:
Carleton and Musser (1989)
reviewed the morphological characters and taxonomy of this species, based in part on the material listed above.
FIELD OBSERVATIONS
: The
six specimens
of
Microryzomys minutus
that I collected near
Papallacta in 1978 and 1980 were trapped at elevations ranging from
3040 to 3570 m
. Of these, three were taken in dense secondary growth surrounded by pastures (below
3200 m
), and three were in Subalpine Rain Forest (above
3300 m
). Five specimens were trapped on the ground (two on the banks of small streams, two under tangles of mossy debris, one inside a hollow trunk), but one was trapped on the mossy limb of a small tree.