Hydromys hussoni Musser and Piik 1982

Hydromys hussoni Musser and Piik 1982, Zool. Meded. Leiden, 56: 157.

Type Locality: New Guinea, Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya), Wissel Lakes, Lake Paniai, Enarotali, 1765 m (see Musser and Piik, 1982, for other details).

Vernacular Names: Husson's Water Rat.

Distribution: New Guinea; known only from the Wissel Lakes region in the W foothill margin of the Snow Mtns (Pegunungan Maoke) in Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya) (Flannery, 1990 b:186, 1995 a; Musser and Piik, 1982:156); limits unresolved.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Overall morphology and anatomical proportions of H. hussoni are like those of H. chrysogaster, although it is much smaller than that species (Musser and Piik, 1982). Ziegler (1984) identified a specimen as H. hussoni obtained from Bianyik, 5 km south of Maprik in lowlands (213 m) of the Torricelli Mtns on N coast of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea. This specimen is about the same body size as the series from Enarotali, has smaller skull and bullae, shorter molar rows (Ziegler, 1984) and to us is not an example of H. hussoni, but represents a separate undescribed species (K. Helgen, in litt., 2004, who examined the specimen, concurs).