Rattus gestri subsp. bunae Troughton 1946

Rattus gestri bunae Troughton, 1946

Rec. Aust. Mus. 21(7): 408. (24 June 1946).

Common name. Dusky Field Rat.

Current name. Rattus sordidus gestri (Thomas, 1897), following Taylor et al. (1982) and Musser & Carleton (2005), but Aplin & Helgen et al. (2016) caution that R. sordidus might represent more than one species. Robins et al. (2014) found evidence that gestri represents a full species but they did not determine whether bunae belongs with sordidus or gestri.

Holotype. M.7072 by original designation. Male adult, [Field no. 82], skull, study skin, collected by E. Le G. Troughton in 1945, registered on 14 October 1945. [Date on skin and skull tags of 18 April 1945 is assumed to be the collection date.]

Condition. Cranium missing interparietal bone, and jugal bone from both zygomatic arches; both dentaries complete. Study skin: three tail fractures, skin otherwise in good condition.

Type locality. Dobodura, inland from Buna, Northern Province, Papua New Guinea.

Paratypes. (6, 5 by subsequent determination), all collected from the Dobodura district. M.6989 (by original designation) adult female (allotype marked in register), skull, study skin, collected by Major Glen M. Kohls, collection date not given, registered 26 September 1944. M.6910, male, skull, study skin, collected 27 March 1944, per G. M. Kohls and M.6911, female, skull, study skin, collection date not given, per G. M. Kohls, both registered 22 May 1944; M.6912, male, skull, study skin, collection date not given, per G. M. Kohls, registered 22 May 1944; M.6975, male, skull, study skin, collected 15 May 1944, per G. M. Kohls, registered 27 July 1944; M.7071, female, body in alc., collected 18 April 1945, E. Troughton, registered October 1945.

Comments. The number of paratypes is not given in the description, nor are registration numbers provided other than for the holotype and allotype. Although none of the remaining five specimens are marked as paratypes, either in the register, card index, or on specimen tags, they clearly belong to the type series because they are the only specimens with appropriate data—all are identified in the register as gestri bunae in Troughton’s handwriting. Troughton refers to the holotype, allotype and a spirit series from Dobodura, but does not explicitly state that he regards this as the type series. The type series (with registration numbers) was interpreted by Dennis & Menzies (1978) and Taylor et al. (1982) as being the six specimens listed above; all six are skins and skulls. One spirit specimen (M.7071) from the type locality, entered in the register as an adult female Rattus gestri bunae in Troughton’s handwriting, was previously overlooked. Troughton refers to a spirit series from Dobodura obtained by the USA Typhus Commission, most of which were presumably converted to skins and skulls after publication of his account. Skull photographs of paratype M.6975 are given by Flannery (1995b).