Melomys cervinipes (Gould, 1852) . Mamm. Aust., pt. 4, 3:pl. 14.

TYPE LOCALITY: Australia, Queensland, Stradbrook Isl .

DISTRIBUTION: Australia; extant range is closed forest and more open habitat along the E Australian coast from Cooktown region of Cape York in Queensland south to Gosford area of New South Wales (Watts and Aslin, 1981:79). Late Pleistocene specimens indicated distribution once extended farther south to the Pyramids Cave region in Victoria (Wakefield, 1972a).

SYNONYMS: banfieldi, bunya, eboreus, limicauda, pallidus .

COMMENTS: Anatomy of male reproductive tract and spermatozoa reported by Breed and Sarafis (1978), Morrissey and Breed (1982), and Breed (1984, 1986). Chromosomal morphology, G-banding homologies, and results of electrophoretic analyses presented by Baverstock et al. (1977 c, 1980, 1981, 1983b), who (1980) reported that M. cervinipes was phylogenetically close to M. capensis, but electrophoretically distant, having experienced a rapid rate of electrophoretic evolution relative to that found in M. capensis and M. burtoni .