Coccymys ruemmleri (Tate and Archbold 1941)

[Pogonomelomys] ruemmleri Tate and Archbold 1941, Am. Mus . Novit., 1101: 6.

Type Locality: New Guinea, Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya), Snow Mtns (Pengunungan Maoke), N slope Mt Wilhelmina, Lake Habbema, 3225 m.

Vernacular Names: Rummler's Coccymys.

Synonyms: Coccymys shawmayeri (Hinton 1943) .

Distribution: New Guinea; Central Cordillera from Mt Wilhelmina in the Snow Mtns (Pegunungan Maoke) of Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya) to Mt Saint Mary in Central Province of Papua New Guinea; 2000-4050 m; Flannery (1995 a) and Musser and Lunde (ms). Apparently absent from the Owen Stanley Range in E Papua New Guinea.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: The species ruemmleri was originally described as a Pogonomelomys (Tate and Archbold, 1941), but because its morphology is so different from other species in that genus Tate (1951) placed ruemmleri in a group within Pogonomelomys separate from mayeri and bruijnii, the species considered typical of the genus. The distinctiveness of ruemmleri was reinforced by Lidicker's (1968) study of phallic morphology; others have noted that it was not part of the same monophyletic group containing the other species of Pogonomelomys (for example, Flannery, 1990 b). Finally, Menzies (1990) made ruemmleri the type species of Coccymys . Before the reports of Lidicker, Flannery, and Menzies, the unique character of ruemmleri had been ascertained by Jack Mahoney, who died before he could finish his revision of the group. The form shawmayeri was described by Hinton (1943), who considered it a remarkable species of Rattus unlike any of the New Guinea species and possibly closely related to Nepal and Sikkim endemics. An undescribed species of Coccymys occurs in the Owen Stanley Range (Musser and Lunde, in ms.).