Indomalayan Niviventer

distribution

Distribution: China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar (widely distributed).

Mammals of Myanmar: an annotated checklist

discussion

Discussion: Some authors have referred to populations on Bali, Java, Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and peninsular Thailand as either N. rapit (Chasen, 1940) or N. bukit (Corbet and Hill, 1992; J. T. Marshall, Jr., 1977 a; Musser, 1981 b), and those occurring north of the Isthmus of Kra as N. fulvescens, pending taxonomic revision of the group. Abe’s (1983) study, which focused on Thai samples, and recent morphometric analyses combining Indochinese and Sundaic samples (Musser and Lunde, ms) support the hypothesis that specimens of bukit represent N. fulvescens (Abe, 1983), an arrangement reflecting the earlier view of Ellerman (1941) and particularly Osgood (1932: 305): " The relationship of fulvescens to southern forms is obvious in several instances, especially in that of R. f. bukit which can at most be no more than a subspecies. " This hypothesis will require additional testing with other data sets, including DNA sequences. The morphometric study by Musser and Lunde (ms) also demonstrates that N. fulvescens is part of a tight cluster containing the Thai endemic N. hinpoon, and the Sumatran N. fraternus, another phylogenetic pattern that will have to be tested by analyses of other ki

Order Rodentia - Family Muridae

distribution

Distribution: From S Himalayas (Nepal and N India; see Agrawal, 2000, for Indian distribution; Corbet and Hill, 1992 extend range to N Pakistan, but we have not seen any specimens from that region) through Bangladesh, S China (Wang, 2003; including Hainan Isl and Hong Kong), and Indochina (including Con Son Isl and several other islands off coast of Vietnam; Kuznetsov, 2000; Musser and Lunde, ms) to the Sunda Shelf on Peninsular Thailand (and offshore Koh Chang), Malay Peninsula (and offshore Koh Samui), Sumatra, Java, and Bali; absent from Borneo and other islands on the Sunda Shelf. Because samples of N. fulvescens have been confused with those of N. confucianus, N. niviventer, and N. tenaster in museum collections and the literature, the range outlined here derives primarily from Musser’s identification of specimens in AMNH, ANSP, BMNH, FMNH, HUNHM, MCZ, MNHN, MZB, RMBR, RMNH, USNM, and ZFMK.

Order Rodentia - Family Muridae

discussion

COMMENTS: Some authors have referred to populations on the Sunda Shelf and S Indochina as bukit, and those occurring farther north as fulvescens (Chasen, 1940; J. T. Marshall, Jr., 1977 «; Musser, 1981 b), pending a taxonomic revision of the group. Recent study now supports the hypothesis that samples of bukit represent N. fulvescens (Abe, 1983), an arrangement reflecting the earlier view of Osgood (1932: 305): " The relationship of fulvescens to southern forms is obvious in several instances, especially in that of R. f. bukit which can at most be no more than a subspecies. " This hypothesis will require testing by carful systematic revision of the fulvescens-bukit complex. Niviventer fulvescens is the only member of the genus with a geographic distribution encompassing SE Asian mainland and some islands of the Sunda Shelf; other murines with roughly equivalent ranges are Berylmys bowersii, Chiropodomys gliroides, Leopoldamys sabanus, L. edwardsi, and Maxomys surifer (Musser and Newcomb, 1983). Spermatozoal morphology of Malayan bukit described by Breed and Yong (1986) in comparative context.

Order Rodentia - Family Muridae