Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
Author
Wilson, Don E.
Author
Reeder, DeeAnn
text
2005
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2
1189
1531
book chapter
0-8018-8221-4
10.5281/zenodo.7316535
Leptomys ernstmayri
Rummler 1932
Leptomys ernstmayri
Rummler 1932
,
Das Aquarium, 6: 134
.
Type Locality:
Papua New Guinea
,
Morobe Province
, Huon Peninsula, Saruwaged Mtns, Ogeramnang,
1785 m
.
Vernacular Names:
Ernst Mayr's Leptomys
.
Distribution:
Papua New Guinea
(above
1500
m in
Astrolabe Range west to Kratke Mtns and Purosa region in
Eastern Highlands Province
, then northeast to mountains on Huon Peninsula; probably occurs farther west in Papuan Central Cordillera, but limits unknown); Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya; Arfak Mtns only, Rümmler, 1932, 1938; limits unknown). Reviewed by Flannery (1995
a
) and Musser and Lunde (in ms.).
Conservation:
IUCN
– Lower Risk (lc).
Discussion:
A distinctive species distinguished from
L. elegans
by the diagnostic morphological traits and altitudinal distributions that were carefully enumerated by Rümmler (1932). It is much smaller in body size and replaces
L. elegans
at high altitudes in tropical montane rainforest formations; in the Astrolabe Range, for example,
L. ernstmayri
displaces
L. elegans
at elevations above
1000 m
(Musser and Lunde, in ms.). Usually misidentified as
L. elegans
in museum collections. The sample from Arfak Mtns may represent a separate undescribed species (K.
Helgen, in
litt., 2004).