Subfamily Sigmodontinae Wagner, 1843 . In Schreber, Die Säugethiere, Suppl., 3:398.

SYNONYMS: Akodontini, Hesperomyinae, Ichthyomyini, Neotominae, Onychomyini, Oryzomyini, Peromyscini, Phyllotini, Reithrodontini, Reithrodontomyini, Scapteromyini, Thomasomyini, Tylomyinae, Wiedomyini.

COMMENTS: Second only to Murinae in generic and specific diversity. Priority of familygroup name Sigmodontinae set forth by Hershkovitz (1966b) and Reig (1980). Taxonomic and nomenclatural histories of many forms compiled by Tate (1932a-h). State-of-the-art alpha-level classifications presented by Miller (1924), Gyldenstolpe (1932), Ellerman (1941), Hall and Kelson (1959), Cabrera (1961), and Hall (1981). The studies of Carleton (1980), Gardner and Patton (1976), Hershkovitz (1962, 1966c), Hooper and Musser (1964a), and Reig (1980, 1984, 1987) contain information on higher-level relationships and classificatory arrangements. For an overview of phylogenetic diversification and biogeography of Sigmodontinae, see Hershkovitz (1966b) and Reig (1984, 1986); for a paleontological background, see Baskin (1986), Martin (1980), Marshall (1979), Reig (1978), and Slaughter and Ubelaker (1984). Sigmodontine genera have been informally or formally grouped into tribes (see Carleton and Musser, 1989; Hershkovitz, 1966c; and Reig, 1980, 1984); however, convincing evidence of monophyly has been mustered for only one of these tribal constructs (see Voss, 1988). The tribal affiliations, cited here in their informal adjectival construction, basically conform to Reig (1980, 1984), except that we maintain the thomasomyines (= Aepeomys, Delomys, Phaenomys, Rhagomys, Rhipidomys, Thomasomys, and Wilfredomys) as distinct from the oryzomyines (see Thomas, 1906d, 1917c; Hershkovitz, 1966c; Carleton and Musser, 1989).