Rattus everetti Günther 1879

Rattus everetti Günther 1879, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1879: 75.

Type Locality: Philippines, N Mindanao Isl (see Heaney and Rabor, 1982, for details).

Vernacular Names: Philippine Forest Rat.

Synonyms: Rattus albigularis (Mearns 1905); Rattus gala (Miller 1910); Rattus tagulayensis (Mearns 1905); Rattus tyrannus (Miller 1910) .

Distribution: Endemic and widespread in the Philippines except for the Greater Palawan and Sulu faunal regions and the Batanes-Babuyan groups. Islands of Luzon, Catanduanes, Mindoro, Sibuyan, Ticao, Camiguin, Samar, Calicoan, Leyte, Dinagat, Siargao, Mindanao, Basilan, Bohol, Biliran, Marinduque, Panay, and Maripipi (Heaney et al., 1998); probably occurs on other islands in the Philippine Arch. (Musser and Heaney, 1992).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Rattus species group unresolved. Member of the Philippine New Endemics (Musser and Heaney, 1992). May be more than one species represented in insular samples; the everetti complex needs critical systematic revision. Corbet and Hill (1992), for example, recognized tyrannus from Ticao and Negros Isls as a separate species. Cranial, dental, and spermatozoal characters elaborated by Breed and Musser (1991) and Musser and Heaney (1992). Not closely related to other species of Rattus endemic to the Philippines and likely should be generically separated. Phylogenetic analyses of complete DNA mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences for 13 of the 16 genera of endemic Philippine murines place R. everetti as either basal to other species of Rattus or near the clade containing species of Bullimus, Tarsomys, and Limnomys (Jansa and Heaney, 2001; Heaney, pers. comm.), which are also New Endemics. Standard karyotype (2n = 42, FN = 64) described by Rickart and Musser (1993).