Rattus mordax (Thomas, 1904) . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 14:398.

TYPE LOCALITY: Papua New Guinea, Kumusi River (see Tate, 1951:333, for comments) .

DISTRIBUTION: Papua New Guinea; Huon Peninsula and both sides of Owen Stanley Range on mainland. Also found in the d'Entrecasteaux Isl, the Louisiade Arch., and Woodlark Isl in the Trobriand Isis (see map in Taylor et al., 1982:225).

SYNONYMS: fergussoniensis .

COMMENTS: Originally described by Thomas as a species, mordax has been historically treated as a subspecies of either leucopus, ringens, or ruber until it was reinstated by Taylor et al. (1982).