Chiruromys Thomas 1888

Chiruromys Thomas 1888, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1888: 237.

Type Species: Chiruromys forbesi Thomas 1888

Species and subspecies: 3 species:

Species Chiruromys forbesi Thomas 1888

Species Chiruromys lamia Thomas 1897

Species Chiruromys vates Thomas 1908

Discussion: Pogonomys Division. Member of the New Guinea Old Endemics (Musser, 1981 c). This group of arboreal species was united with Pogonomys as a subgenus (Laurie and Hill, 1954; Tate, 1951; Thomas, 1897 a) until the chromosomal and morphometric study by Dennis and Menzies (1979) demonstrated how different Chiruromys is compared to Pogonomys . The closest phylogenetic relative was thought to be Pogonomys, as assessed by morphology (for example, Tate, 1951); analysis of microcomplement fixation of albumin (Watts and Baverstock, 1994 a) tends to support this alliance and unites Chiruromys with Pogonomys, Hyomys, Macruromys, Mallomys, Coccymys, and Anisomys in the same clade. Tate included Chiruromys (as a subgenus of Pogonomys) in the Phloeomyinae, which included Chiropodomys, Crateromys, Lenomys, Mallomys, and Phloeomys (an arrangement followed by Simpson, 1945), but, except for its link to Mallomys, no evidence supports this allocation (Ellerman, 1949 a; our research). Flannery (1995 a) provided photographs of most of the species and summarized distributional and biological information. Chiruromys forbesi is found on the mainland and adjacent D’Entrecasteaux Isls, and two species have been recorded only from mainland Papua. A fourth undescribed species is endemic to the Louisiade Arch. (Musser and Lunde, in ms.).