Niviventer cremoriventer (Miller 1900)

[Niviventer] cremoriventer (Miller 1900), Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 13: 144.

Type Locality: S Peninsular Thailand, Trang Province, Trang (07E30'N, 99E18'E).

Vernacular Names: Sundaic Arboreal Niviventer.

Synonyms: Niviventer barussanus (Miller 1911); Niviventer cretaceiventer (Robinson and Kloss 1919); Niviventer flaviventer (Miller 1900); Niviventer gilbiventer (Miller 1903); Niviventer kina (Bonhote 1903); Niviventer malawali (Chasen and Kloss 1932); Niviventer mengurus (Miller 1911); Niviventer solus (Miller 1913); Niviventer spatulatus (Lyon 1911); Niviventer sumatrae (Bartels 1937) .

Distribution: Peninsular Thailand and Malaya and some offshore islands; Mergui Arch., Anambas Isls; Sumatra, and smaller islands of Nias, Billiton and Banka; Borneo and some offshore islands, Java, and Bali; see Musser (1973 c) and Corbet and Hill (1992). Does not occur north of the Isthmus of Kra (10E30'N).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Revised by Musser (1973 c, 1981 b); a Sundaic endemic whose closest morphological and likely phylogenetic relative is the Indochinese N. langbianis . Considerable variation in body size exists among samples, with those in small island populations being larger than individuals in populations on larger islands and the Malay Peninsula (Musser, 1973 c). Tuen et al. (2000) documented N. cremoriventer from peninsular Mt Santubong in W Sarawak, and Md Nor (1996) recorded its distribution and ecology on the small islands off N tip of Sabah. This generally lowland species reaches 1530 m on the slopes of Mt Kinabalu in Sabah (Md Nor, 2001, and references cited therein). Niviventer cremoriventer joins N. rapit as the only two species in the genus occurring on Borneo.