Uromys (Uromys) hadrourus Winter 1984

Uromys (Uromys) hadrourus Winter 1984, Mem. Queensl. Mus ., 21: 519.

Type Locality: Australia, NE Queensland, Thornton Peak summit area, 1200 m; see Winter (1984) and Mahoney and Richardson (1988:163) for additional information.

Vernacular Names: Masked White-tailed Uromys.

Distribution: Originally known by only a few specimens from rainforest on Mareeba Franite of the Thornton Peak massif north of the Daintree River valley (Winter, 1983, 1984), but now also recorded south of the Daintree River in the Mount Carbine Tableland and farther south in the Lamins Hill area of the Atherton Tableland (Winter and Moore, 1995).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Subgenus Uromys . Originally described as a species of Melomys, subsequently placed in Uromys and allied with U. caudimaculatus (Groves and Flannery, 1994) . Uromys hadrourus is a member of a group of species that are endemic to "the Townsville to Cooktown region, and considered to be relicts of a wet- and cool-adapted fauna which may have originated in Australia from a common pre-Pleistocene stock of Australia and New Guinea " (Winter, 1984:525). Chromosomal morphology reported by Baverstock et al. (1977 c). McAllan and Bruce (1989) claimed 1983 to be the publication date for hadrourus instead of 1984 as is usually accepted, noting that the species was first given the name Melanomys hadrourus . That name was in the title of report cited by Winter (1983:379) as "in press" and placed in a sidebar and not in the main account, which was headed by the name Melomys sp. Melanomys is a nomen nudum as entered in Winter (1983) and has nothing to do with Melanomys Thomas, 1902, which is a sigmodontine. Mahoney and Richardson (1988:163) maintain 1984 as publication date. Reviewed by Winter and Moore (1995).