Pogonomys sylvestris Thomas 1920

Pogonomys sylvestris Thomas 1920, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 6: 534.

Type Locality: Papua New Guinea, Morobe Province, Rawlinson Mtns, 1500 m.

Vernacular Names: Gray-bellied Pogonomys.

Distribution: New Guinea; in Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya) known only from the Arfak Mountains in the Vogelkop region, but widespread in mountainous Papua New Guinea, from about the Mendi region east through the mountains (including those on the Huon Peninsula) to the western margin of the Owen Stanley Range at elevations between 1300 and 2800 m. It has not been taken on the N coastal ranges and is conspicuously absent from the mountain valleys in the Telefomin area of S Sandaun Province in W Papua (where P. championi occurs), and from the Snow Mountains (Pegunungan Maoke) in Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya), which is occupied by an undescribed species related to P. sylvestris (Musser and Lunde, ms.).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: This is the smallest in body size of any species of Pogonomys . The few localities from the Central Cordillera in Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya) attributed to P. sylvestris (Flannery, 1995 a, for example) represent an undescribed species (Musser and Lunde, ms.), and P. sylvestris is apparently replaced in the Telefomin area by P. championi (Flannery, 1988) . Cole et al. (1997) reported that P. sylvestris is common in the Mt Dayman region at the eastern margin of the Owen Stanley Range.