Melomys rufescens (Alston, 1877) . Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1877:124.

TYPE LOCALITY: "Duke of York Isl. or adjacent parts of New Britain or New Ireland " (Tate, 1951:304) .

DISTRIBUTION: New Guinea; throughout the island continent, from the Vogelkop in Irian Jaya to the east end of Papua New Guinea, coastal lowlands to high altitudes in mountains. Also on New Britain, Duke of York Isl, and New Ireland (see Flannery and White, 1991) in the Bismarck Arch.

SYNONYMS: calidior, hageni, musavora, niviventer, sexplicatus, stalkeri .

COMMENTS: The significant geographic variation in morphological traits present among samples allows recognition of four distinct groups; rufescens from N and W New Guinea and the Bismarck Arch., niviventer from Fly River drainage, stalkeri from E Papua New Guinea, and hageni from the Eastern Highlands (based on our study of specimens in the American Museum of Natural History and the British Museum of Natural History).