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
Apomys microdon
Hollister 1913
Apomys microdon
Hollister 1913
,
Proc.
U. S.
Natl.
Mus
., 46: 327
.
Type Locality:
Philippines
, Cataduanes Isl, Biga.
Vernacular Names:
Small Luzon Apomys
.
Synonyms:
Apomys hollisteri
(Ellerman 1949)
.
Distribution:
Endemic to the Greater Luzon Faunal
Region
and widespread on Luzon in secondary lowland forest and primary montane forest (
Heaney et al., 1991
;
Heaney et al., 1998
;
Heaney et al., 1999
;
Musser and Heaney, 1992
). Formerly thought to also occur on
Leyte
and
Dinagat
(Musser, 1982
b
), but those samples have been referred to
A. littoralis
.
Conservation:
IUCN
– Lower Risk (lc).
Discussion:
Included within
Apomys abrae hylocetes
Group by Musser (1982
b
). Phylogenetic analyses of mtDNA cytochrome
b
sequences identifies
M. musculus
, an undescribed species from Sibuyan Isl and Negros Isl, and another undescribed species from Sibuyan Isl as the closest phylogenetic allies to
A. microdon
(
Steppan et al., 2003
)
.
Ellerman (1949) provided
hollisteri
as a replacement name for
Apomys microdon
because it was preoccupied by
Mus microdon
Peters (1852)
, which is a form of
Mastomys
, and Ellerman had included both
Apomys
and
Mastomys
in
Rattus
.
Corbet and Hill (1992:379)
used
hollisteri
as the correct name stating that
microdon
was permanently invalid following Article 59(b) of the 3
rd
edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1985
d
), which states that a "junior secondary homonym replaced before 1961 is permanently invalid." But according to article 59.3 of the 4th edition of the Code (
ICZN
, 1999), a "junior secondary homonym replaced before 1961 is permanently invalid unless the substitute name is not in use and the relevant taxa are no longer considered congeneric, in which case the junior homonym is not to be rejected on grounds of that replacement." Except for Corbet and Hill’s account,
microdon
is the name that has been in use, especially for the last 20 years, in all the ecological, biological, biogeographical, and taxonomic literature covering Philippine mammals. Additionally, all modern practicing rodent systematists agree that Hollister’s
microdon
and Peters’s
microdon
refer to species in different genera (
Apomys
and
Mastomys
, respectively) that are in unrelated (except as members of
Murinae
) phylogenetic clades. We continue to follow Musser (1982
b
) in using
microdon
.
Corbet and Hill (1992:379)
correctly noted that
A. microdon
is closely related to
A. insignis
(an alliance documented by Musser, 1982
b
) and also stated that
A. microdon
"could conceivably be considered conspecific with
A. insignis
" but morphological evidence does not support this supposition (Musser, 1982
b
)
.