Melomys Thomas 1922

Melomys Thomas 1922, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 9: 261.

Type Species: Uromys rufescens Alston 1877

Species and subspecies: 23 species:

Species Melomys aerosus (Thomas 1920)

Species Melomys arcium (Thomas 1913)

Species Melomys bannisteri Kitchener and Maryanto 1993

Species Melomys bougainville Troughton 1936

Species Melomys burtoni (Ramsay 1887)

Species Melomys capensis Tate 1951

Species Melomys caurinus (Thomas 1921)

Species Melomys cervinipes (Gould 1852)

Species Melomys cooperae Kitchener, in Kitchener and Maryanto 1995

Species Melomys dollmani Rümmler 1935

Species Melomys fraterculus (Thomas 1920)

Species Melomys frigicola Tate 1951

Species Melomys fulgens (Thomas 1920)

Species Melomys howi Kitchener, in Kitchener and Suyanto 1996

Species Melomys leucogaster (Jentink 1908)

Species Melomys lutillus (Thomas 1913)

Species Melomys matambuai Flannery, Colgan, and Trimble 1994

Species Melomys obiensis (Thomas 1911)

Species Melomys paveli Helgen 2003

Species Melomys rubicola Thomas 1924

Species Melomys rufescens (Alston 1877)

Species Melomys spechti Flannery and Wickler 1990

Species Melomys talaudium (Thomas 1921)

Discussion: Uromys Division. Member of the Australian and New Guinea region Old Endemics (Musser, 1981 c, 1982 b). Data from microcomplement fixation of albumin indicated Australian Melomys is closely related to Uromys and in the same monophyletic group with Mesembriomys, Leporillus, Conilurus, and Zyzomys (Watts et al., 1992) . These genera join other Australian and some New Guinea genera to form an "Australasian clade" as estimated by albumin immunology (Watts and Baverstock, 1994 a, 1995 b, 1996). Menzies (1996) has revised the New Guinea species that were formerly included in Melomys . His results considerably contracted the scope of the genus by raising subgenus Paramelomys to generic rank, separating lanosus and rattoides as a separate genus (see account of Mammelomys) and placing fellowsi in its own genus (see account of Protochromys). Mahoney and Richardson (1988) cataloged taxonomic, distributional, and biological references to Australian species; Flannery (1995 a, b) summarized the same for many New Guinea Melomys .