Mus Linnaeus, 1758 . Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1:59.

TYPE SPECIES: Mus musculus Linnaeus, 1758 .

SYNONYMS: Budamys, Coelomys, Drymomys, Gatamiya, Hylenomys, Leggada, Leggadilla, Musculus, Mycteromys, Nannomys, Oromys, Pseudoconontys, Pyromys, Tautatus .

COMMENTS: Extant species of Mus are contained in four distinct subgenera ( Coelomys, Mus, Nannomys, and Pyromys), each diagnosed by a suite of discrete morphological traits (J. T. Marshall, Jr., 19775, 1986) and biochemical features (Bonhomme, 1986; She et al., 1990). Nannomys, Pyromys, and Coelomys were treated as genera by Bonhomme (1986), a view also adopted by She et al. (1990). The Asian species were reviewed by J. T. Marshall, Jr. (19775) and the European forms by Marshall (1981, 1986), Marshall and Sage (1981), Bonhomme et al. (1984), Gerasimov et al. (1990), and She et al. (1990). Most of the African species need careful systematic review (see accounts below of species in subgenus Nannomys) and Ansell (in Meester et al., 1986:280) believed the African segment of the genus to be "over-split." Relevance of metrical, chromosomal, and allozyme variation to systematics of Mus was discussed by Corbet (1990). See Carleton and Musser (1984) for authors and publication dates of synonyms.