Melomys rubex Thomas, 1922 . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 9:263.

TYPE LOCALITY: New Guinea, Irian Jaya, Mamberano River, Doormanpad-bivak, 1410 m .

DISTRIBUTION: New Guinea; above 800 m in the Central Cordillera from the Arfak Mtns in Irian Jaya to Mt Dayman at the end of the Owen Stanley Range in SE Papua New Guinea; also in the Torricelli Mtns and Huon Peninsula.

SYNONYMS: alleni, arfakiensis, clarus, pohlei, rutilus, shawi, steini, stressmani, tafa.

COMMENTS: The many names applied to M. rubex reflect morphological variation among some samples that is concordant with interrupted highland distributions. Taxonomic status of some names associated with rubex briefly reviewed by Menzies (1974). The form shawi is usually listed as a subspecies of M. moncktoni (Laurie and Hill, 1954:123), but the holotype is an example of M. rubex .