Western Rainforest Grammomys

discussion

Discussion: The species is better known as Grammomys rutilans (Peters, 1876; see Musser and Carleton, 1993, for example). Mus rutilans Peters, 1876, however, is a junior homonym of Mus rutilans Olfers, 1818, a South American sigmodontine cricetid, which has been used in the combination Oxymycterus rutilans (Olfers, 1818) by Hershkovitz (1959 a), Vaz-Ferreira (1960), Reig (1964, 1965), Carleton (1973), and Voss and Linzey (1981). Hershkovitz (1994) recently placed rutilans in the synonymy of Oxymycterus rufus (Fischer, 1814). Mus rutilans Peters, 1876, therefore, is not available; poensis, described as a subspecies of G. rutilans by Eisentraut (1965) refers to the same genus and species, and is the valid species name for the taxon. The karyotype (2 n = 36) reported by Tranier and Dosso (1979) for an individual captured in Côte d’Ivoire refers to G. poensis. Phylogenetically most closely related to G. kuru (see that account).

Order Rodentia - Family Muridae

distribution

Distribution: Western tropical rain forest blocks and outlying patches: from Guinea (Mt Nimba) eastward through Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana (Grubb et al., 1998, as rutilans), and Togo to S Nigeria, then south through Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea (including Bioko; Eisentraut, 1965), and Gabon to N Angola (Crawford-Cabral, 1998, as rutilans). This outline is provisional; samples from Gabon and N Angola should be reexamined to determine if they are this species or the smaller G. kuru.

Order Rodentia - Family Muridae

activity

Activity patterns. Nocturnal and arboreal. Western Rainforest Thicket Rats have been captured on the ground and at heights of up to 12 m. They make spherical nests of grass, lianas and other vegetation, wherein they spend the day, venturing out to feed at 21: 45 - 22: 00 h untl about 05: 00 h, bouts of activity alternating with rest in nests.

Muridae

biology_ecology

Habitat. [Lowland rainforest in clearings, disturbed and secondary forest, in farmland (mature cocoa and cocoyam plantations), and in secondary bush around farmlands.

Muridae