Rattus nitidus (Hodgson, 1845) . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., [ser. 1], 15:267.

TYPE LOCALITY: Nepal .

DISTRIBUTION: Records on mainland Southeast Asia are from S China (including Hainan Isl), Vietnam, Laos, N Thailand, Burma, India (Assam, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Kumaun), Bangladesh, and Nepal; these probably represent the indigenous range. Records east of the continental shelf are from Sulawesi, Luzon Isl in the Philippines, Seram Isl in the Moluccas, the Vogelkop Peninsula of Irian Jaya, and the Palau isls; this range likely represents introductions mediated by human agency (Musser and Holden, 1991).

SYNONYMS: aequicaudalus, guhai, horeites, manuselae, obsoletus, rahengis, ruber, rubricosa, subditivus, vanheurni (see Ellerman, 1941; Khajuria et al., 1977; J. T. Marshall, Jr., 1977a, b; Musser, 1981c; Musser and Holden, 1991; and Taylor et al., 1982).

COMMENTS: Ellerman (1941) listed pyctoris as a synonym of R. nitidus, but that name was based on a specimen of R. turkestanicus . Phallic morphology described by Yang and Fang (1988) in context of assessing phylogenetic relationships among Chinese murines.