Bandicota savilei Thomas 1916

Bandicota savilei Thomas 1916, J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 24: 641.

Type Locality: Burma, Mt Popa, about 2500 ft (760 m).

Vernacular Names: Savile's Bandicoot Rat.

Synonyms: Bandicota bangchakensis Boonsong and Felten 1989; Bandicota curtata Thomas 1929; Bandicota giaraiensis Dao and Cao 1990; Bandicota hichensis Dao 1961 .

Distribution: C Burma, Thailand (throughout the country north of the Isthmus of Kra and south of the Isthmus to the southern end of peninsular Thailand), Vietnam (Dang et al., 1994), Cambodia (Aplin et al., 2003 b; also specimens in FMNH); and an unconfirmed photographic record from S Laos (Aplin et al., 2003 b).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Occurs sympatrically with B. indica in C Burma (K. Aplin, in litt., 2003), C and S Thailand, and S and N Vietnam and C Cambodia (Aplin et al., 2003 b); found with B. bengalensis and B. indica in C Burma where in some places B. savilei lives in fields and B. bengalensis in village houses, and at other sites both are found together in rainfed paddy fields (Aplin, in litt., 2004; Musser and Brothers, 1994). Bandicota savilei is a distinctive species as Thomas (1916 d) pointed out; unfortunately it was later treated as a subspecies of B. indica (Ellerman, 1961; Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951). Specimens are usually misidentified as B. bengalensis, but in external, cranial, and dental morphology, B. savilei can easily be distinguished from B. bengalensis and more closely resembles B. indica (Musser and Brothers, 1994) . Aplin et al. (2003 b) described external morphological criteria for distinguishing B. indica from B. savilei, based upon large samples collected in sympatry in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Electrophoretic data, however, indicated a closer relationship with B. bengalensis than with B. indica (Radtke and Niethammer, 1984 [85]). Bandicota indica and B. savilei share a unique spermatozoal structure (Breed, 1993, 1998). Chromosomal information reported by Markvong et al. (1973). Lekagul and Felten (1989) described bangchakensis as a species; hichensis and giaraiensis were proposed as subspecies of B. bengalensis (Dao, 1961; Dao and Cao, 1990) and listed in the synonomy of that species by Corbet and Hill (1992). Musser and Brothers (1994) explained why these three names represent samples of B. savilei and provided a revision of the species.