Rattus exulans
Creators
Description
Rattus exulans (Peale, 1848). Mammalia in Repts. U.S. Expl. Surv., 8:47.
TYPE LOCALITY: Society Isis, Tahiti Isl (France).
DISTRIBUTION: E Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sundaic region (incl. Mentawai isls, and islands of Enggano, Nias, and Simeulule), Christmas Isl, Sulawesi, Philippines, Moluccas, Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Isis), New Guinea Region, two islands off the coast of N and NE Australia (not on mainland), Micronesia, New Zealand, and Polynesia, including Hawaii and Easter Isl. Not recorded from Andaman or Nicobar isls, despite assertion of Wodzicki and Taylor (1984).
SYNONYMS: aentuli, aitape, apicus, basilanus, bocourti, buruensis, calcis, clabatus, concolor, browni echimyoides, ephippiutn, equile, eurous, gawae, hawaiiensis, huegeli, jessook, lassacquerei, leucophaetus, luteiventris, malengiensis, manoquarius, maorium, mayonicus, Togomys melanoderma, meringgit, micronesiensis, negrinus, obscurus, ornatulus, otteni, pantarensis, praecelsus, pullus, querceti, raveni, rennelli, schuitemakeri, solatus, stragulum, suffectus, surdus, tibicen, todayensis, vigoratus, vitiensis, vulcani, wichmanni (see Dieterlen, in Ansell, 1989a; Ellerman, 1961; Laurie and Hill, 1954; Musser, 1970e, 1977a; Musser and Newcomb, 1983; and Taylor et al., 1982).
COMMENTS: Inadvertant human introduction responsible for most of the Pacific insular occurrences (see Roberts, 1991), and possibly for distribution outside of mainland SE Asia where species may have originated (Musser and Newcomb, 1983).
Rattus exulans has traditionally been included within subgenus Rattus along with R. argentiventer, R. nitidus, R. norvegicus, R. rattus, and others which have, in the past, formed the core of that group (e.g., Ellerman, 1941; Misonne, 1969). Some electrophoretic and chromosomal data supported this allocation (Raman and Sharma, 1977; Chan, 1977; Chan et al., 1979), but morphological and other biochemical data suggested the species is distant from R. rattus and its close relatives (Gemmeke and Niethammer, 1984; Medway and Yong, 1976; Pasteur et al., 1982).
Notes
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Related works
- Is part of
- Book chapter: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098 (DOI)
- Book chapter: http://publication.plazi.org/id/FFE9FFD6FFF6FFBBFFF30B06FF93FFF3 (URL)
Biodiversity
References
- Wodzicki, K., and R. H. Taylor. 1984. Distribution and status of the Polynesian rat Rattus exulans. Acta Zoologica Fennica, 172: 99 - 101.
- Ansell, W. F. H. 1989 a. African mammals, 1938 - 1988. Trendrine Press, Cornwall, 77 pp.
- Ellerman, J. R. 1961. Rodentia. Volume 3, in The fauna of India including Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon. Mammalia. Second ed. Manager of Publications, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, vol. 3 (in 2 parts), 1: 1 - 482; 2: 483 - 884.
- Laurie, E. M. O., and J. E. Hill. 1954. List of land mammals of New Guinea, Celebes and adjacent islands 1758 - 1952. British Museum (Natural History) Publications, London, 175 pp.
- Musser, G. G. 1970 e. The taxonomic identity of Mus bocourti A. Milne Edwards (1874) (Mammalia: Muridae). Mammalia, 34: 484 - 490.
- Musser, G. G., and C. Newcomb. 1983. Malaysian murids and the giant rat of Sumatra. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 174: 327 - 598.
- Taylor, J. M., J. H. Calaby, and H. M. Van Deusen. 1982. A revision of the genus Rattus (Rodentia, Muridae) in the New Guinean region. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 173: 177 - 336.
- Roberts, M. 1991. Origin, dispersal routes, and geographic distribution of Rattus exulans, with special reference to New Zealand. Pacific Science, 45: 123 - 130.
- Ellerman, J. R. 1941. The families and genera of living rodents. Vol. II. Family Muridae. British Museum (Natural History), London, 690 pp.
- Misonne, X. 1969. African and Indo-Australian Muridae: Evolutionary trends. Annales Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgique, Serie IN- 8, Sciences Zoologiques, 172: 1 - 219.
- Raman, R., and T. Sharma. 1977. Karyotype evolution and speciation in genus Rattus Fischer. Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, 36: 385 - 404.
- Chan, K. L. 1977. Enzyme polymorphism in Malayan rats of the subgenus Rattus. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology, 5: 161 - 168.
- Chan, K. L., S. S. Dhaliwal, and H. S. Yong. 1979. Protein variation and systematics of three subgenera of Malayan rats (Rodentia: Muridae, genus Rattus Fischer). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 64 B: 329 - 337.
- Gemmeke, H., and J. Niethammer. 1984. Zur Taxonomie der Gattung Rattus (Rodentia, Muridae). Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, 49: 104 - 116.
- Medway, L., and H. S. Yong. 1976. Problems in the systematics of the rats (Muridae) of peninsular Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Science, 4 (A): 43 - 53.
- Pasteur, N., J. Worms, M. Tohari, and D. Iskandar. 1982. Genetic differentiation in Indonesian and French rats of the subgenus Rattus. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology, 10: 191 - 196.